A microwave-assisted thermo-chemical surface treatment of highly porous carbon foam has been developed to synthesize boron-carbon-nitrogen (B-C-N) foam for thermal energy storage and release by adsorption/desorption with lightweight hydrocarbons. Carbon foams provide the combined advantage of large surface area and high thermal conductivity critical for thermal energy storage, but they are prone to oxidation and have low adsorption enthalpy for lightweight hydrocarbons. The non-plasma microwave heating of the carbon foams exposed to boric acid and urea solutions described herein converts carbon foam to B-C-N foam. Microwave treatment helps to activate surface chemical reactions, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals the formation of boron nitride and carbon nitride interatomic bonds with evidence of boron carbide bonds. This complex surface chemical structure is proposed to increase methanol desorption enthalpy, which in turn is expected to offer improved performance in adsorptive thermal applications. B-C-N is a hexagonal solid material that can provide the benefi ts of intrinsically layered solids such as graphite and graphene, [ 1‐3 ] with an additional advantage of higher thermal stability and wider band gap typical for hexagonal BN and BN nanosheets. [ 4 ] Many prior studies have considered the hybrid phases of B-C-N. [ 5‐12 ] The synthesis procedures to produce B-C-N materials include r.f. plasma-enhanced pulsed laser

Microwave-Assisted Surface Synthesis of a Boron–Carbon–Nitrogen Foam and its Desorption Enthalpy

M.K Lei

Papers

Characterization and optical investigation of BCN film deposited by RF magnetron sputtering