LAUSR

Abstract Boron defect engineered boron nitride (BN) nanosheets have been prepared with the barbituric acid as co-reactant sources. By virtue of B defects, the electronic structure of BN undergo significantly variation, in which the conduction band of BN declined from −1.35 to −0.54 eV and decreased chemical acid hardness. After B defect engineering, BN nanosheets display greatly improved adsorptive desulfurization performance towards dibenzothiophene (DBT), with optimized adsorption capacity of 43.6 mgS g−1 for model oil. The increased adsorptive desulfurization performance was derived from decreased chemical acid hardness by B defect engineering, thus can build preferable interplay between the soft base DBT.