One-Step Exfoliation and Fluorination of Boron Nitride Nanosheets and a Study of Their Magnetic Properties

A novel, simple, and efficient method for the preparation of the fluorinated hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (F-BNNSs) and the corresponding magnetic properties is presented. A one-step route is used to exfoliate and fluorinate the BNNSs by ammonium fluoride (NH4F) from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) powder. Through related instrument characterizations and theoretical calculations, we confirm that large-area and few-layer F-BNNSs were successfully produced by this method, which can be attributed to a fluorination-assisted exfoliation mechanism from the bulk h-BN in NH4F. More intriguingly, we initially verified that the as-prepared F-BNNSs exhibit ferromagnetic characteristics, which would have good potential applications in spintronic devices.