Thin films of boron nitride have been obtained by reactive pulsed laser ablation of a boron target in the presence of a 13.56 MHz radio frequency nitrogen plasma. The films have been deposited at several substrate temperatures, using the on-axis configuration, on WC–Co cutting tools, after Co removal by chemical etching (HClyHNO or HFyHNO ). Diamond polycrystalline 3 3 films of increasing thick...

High-intensity ultrasound exfoliation of a bulk-layered material is an attractive route for large-scale preparation of monolayers. The monolayer slices could potentially be prepared with a high yield (up to 100%) in a few minutes. Exfoliation of natural minerals (such as tungstenite and molybdenite) or bulk synthetic materials (including hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), hexagonal boron carbon ni...

This paper describes novel host-guest systems comprising viologen cations (guests) and the derivatives of bis-para-phenylene-34-crown-10 (hosts) with anionic groups COO(-) or SO(3)(-). The structure of the resulting charge-compensated host-guest complexes, their association constants and their electrochemical behaviour have been studied. In the solid state, the viologen cations thread the negat...