What is White Graphene? Hexagonal Boron Nitride

In the past few years, two dimensional materials started to gain a lot of attention, all thanks to their chemical, optical and physical properties. Graphene is a great example, because it can be stretched with ease, while also bringing in a lot of strength too. After this material was uncovered, some researchers from the CityU in Hong Kong unveiled a new material named white graphene.

The thing to note about this material is the fact that it has a high defect tolerance and great elasticity. One thing to keep in mind is that the material is also known as hexagonal boron nitride. This material is a graphite structural analog, but it does have a layered system with hexagonal lattice.

As we mentioned earlier, this is a 2D structure, and you can create it either via mechanical cleaving of epitaxy. As you exfoliate the 2D materials, you will also notice that the yield is very limited, especially when you compare it with the CVD processes.

There are many different properties brought by white graphene that stand out of the crowd. One of them is definitely regarding its thermoelectric properties. The thing to note here is that white graphene is a very powerful dielectric material transparent to both radio frequencies and electromagnetic waves. In fact, it’s known to have one of the best thermal conductivity features when compared to other electrical insulators that you can find on the market. This is partially caused by the single layer boron nitride wide bandgap that can be around 5.97 eV.

You have to wonder though, where does the white graphene name comes from? The reason why single layer boron nitride also has the name white graphene is because it’s white and it has a very similar structure to graphene. Its white coloring usually appear due to the wide bandgap that this material has all the time. However, white graphene can also appear transparent when you have it deposited in some atomic layers with copper or silicon substrates. That’s definitely one thing to keep in mind regarding such a material.

One of the things that make white graphene stand out is the fact that it can be used as a catalyst to split water in oxygen and hydrogen. It’s very powerful, easy to use and adapting it to your own needs can be incredibly simple and rewarding.

White graphene has the potential to be used in many fields, with biosensing being a great example. This can be used for its great performance capabilities. The handheld blood analyzers based on white graphene are able to identify diseases easier than before.

As you can see, white graphene is a very powerful material and one that has the potential to change the way we work in a variety of different fields. It’s extremely interesting and it has the potential to shift our beliefs in many ways. At the end of the day, white graphene stands out of the crowd and it continues to push the boundaries and help us monitor and track important aspects in every project it’s used!