Ball-milled hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) involving oxidized boron on the surface was found to catalyze oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane with high selectivity to ethylene (92-96%) whereas pristine h-BN showed poor selectivity (42%). The calcination of the ball-milled h-BN at the temperature of 550 degrees C or higher resulted in the formation of boron oxide on the surface leading to decrease of the activity for the reaction.