Fig. 1: Purity assessment of lightly purified BNNTs (LP-BNNTs) and highly purified BNNTs (HP-BNNTs). | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Purity assessment of lightly purified BNNTs (LP-BNNTs) and highly purified BNNTs (HP-BNNTs).

From: Liquid crystals of neat boron nitride nanotubes and their assembly into ordered macroscopic materials

Fig. 1

a Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of LP-BNNTs. b SEM of HP-BNNTs. c Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of LP-BNNTs on perforated carbon grid. d TEM of HP-BNNTs on perforated carbon grid with inset TEM image of residual contaminants in HP-BNNTs. A selected area fast Fourier transform of the inset image indicates an interlayer spacing of 0.337 nm, the same as for h-BN (Supplementary Fig. 4). Electron microscopy shows a reduction in non-nanotube structures upon more purification. Arrows indicate hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) contaminants in both LP-BNNTs and HP-BNNTs. e Photograph of solutions of (left) HP-BNNTs and (right) LP-BNNTs in chlorosulfonic acid (CSA) at 1700 ppmw in 4 mm path length quartz cuvettes placed in front of the Rice University shield. Scattering of the LP-BNNT solution occludes details in the design. f Cryogenic-TEM of 4000 ppmw HP-BNNTs in CSA showing amorphous material covering BNNTs (black arrow), and faceted structures (white arrow).

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