Boron- and nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanohorns with graphite-like thin sheets prepared by CO2 laser ablation method

Boron- and nitrogen-codoped single walled carbon nanohorns (BN-SWCNHs) were prepared by CO2 laser ablation of a boron-containing carbon target under nitrogen atmosphere. The structures were spherical SWCNH aggregates containing many graphite-like thin sheets (GLSs), which was different from general SWCNHs. X-ray photoelectron spectra indicated that the doped quantities of boron and nitrogen were about 1.2 and 1.0 at.%, respectively. The boron and nitrogen atoms were implanted partially as the BN bonding in a graphene lattice, although they were also implanted individually as three-fold coordinated sp2 bonding. The boron-doped GLSs were preferentially prepared by CO2 laser ablation of a boron-containing carbon target under argon atmospheres. As a result, we found that the boron accelerated the formation of GLSs. The simple CO2 laser ablation method will be useful for heteroatoms doping into carbon nanohorns.