Facile Etching Process for the Porous Structure of Hexagonal Boron Nitride as a Catalyst Support Using Metal Oxides Under Low-Temperature Conditions

Many technological fields have adopted composites with active material–support configurations, where the active materials dictate the catalytic activity, and the supports improve the properties. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising and highly stable support material with limited applications because it is difficult to modify. In this work, a facile method for the etching of h-BN was achieved using metal oxide (MOX) nanoparticles. The nanoporous structure of etched h-BN was revealed by selective removal of MOX on the surface; as a result, the specific surface area and pore volume increased more than two-fold. Then, to verify the effect of the nanoporous structure, etched h-BN was used to support the catalyst because the nanoporous structure has an advantage in dispersing the nanoparticles. Fabricated etched h-BN-added catalysts exhibited high performance in N2O conversion. This high performance was attributed to the changed oxidation states of metal cations by interaction-etched h-BN using MOX nanoparticles. This study serves as a basis for the development of nanocomposites with various cations and supports for catalytic reaction systems.