Urea route to coat inorganic nanowires, carbon fibers and nanotubes with boron nitride

Abstract

A simple route involving urea as the nitrogen source has been employed to carry out boron nitride coating on carbon fibers, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and inorganic nanowires. The process involves heating the carbon fibers and nanotubes or inorganic nanowires in a mixture of H3BO3 and urea, followed by a heat treatment at 1000 degrees C in a N-2 atmosphere. We have been able to characterize the BN coating by transmission electron microscopy as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The urea decomposition route affords a simple method to coat boron nitride on one-dimensional nanostructures. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.