Abstract:

Displaying the same crystalline and non-crystalline forms of carbon, boron nitride – composed of B and N atoms (BN) – has emerged as a new class of materials offering complementary properties to those of carbonaceous compounds. Among the different forms of BN, our research focuses on porous BN. The semi-crystalline to amorphous nature of this material leads to almost endless combinations of structural, chemical, physical, optical and electronic properties that can be controlled to target a given application. In this talk, I will present our recent progress in exploring the potential of porous BN for molecular separation and photocatalysis. Specifically, I will highlight:

• how we control the porosity of porous BN, an important feature for interfacial phenomena such as catalysis and adsorption, among others
• how we tune the stability of porous BN, going from low chemical stability (relevant e.g. for drug delivery applications) to higher chemical stability (relevant to e.g. catalytic and separation applications) 
• our initial work on manufacturing porous BN in densified, usable forms
• and finally how we exploit its chemistry to vary its optoelectronic properties and allow reactions such as CO₂ photoreduction.