Recent Advances in Hydrothermal Synthesis of Low Dimensional Boron Nitride Nanostructures

Abstract

As an ultra-wide bandgap insulating material, boron nitride has attracted intense interest due to its high thermal conductivity, high chemical and thermal stability as well as their applications in thermal interface materials, photo/electro-catalysis, and energy storage. As for the low dimensional boron nitride nanostructures, e.g., nanosheets, nanotubes, nanorods, nanowires, nanospheres, and quantum dots, the high thermal conductivity (600 W/mK) and the ultra-large bandgap (5~6 eV) make them the promising candidate for thermal conductive composites, thermoelectric materials and electronic packaging materials, which gives rise to the hot research topic on the synthesis and properties of the boron nitride nanostructures. In this review, the recent advances in the hydrothermal synthesis of boron nitride nanostructures will be fully discussed, and the remarks on the issues need to be addressed, the comprehensive understanding of the mechanism and the new approaches for the hydrothermal synthesis will be proposed in the end.