A Scalable and Patternable Method for the Fabrication of Vertically Aligned BN and BN/C Nanofiber Array

There is an increasing amount of research interest in one dimensional boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials due to their outstanding mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. However, vertically aligned BN nanotubes and nanofibers are difficult to synthesize and are rarely reported. Here, large scale vertically aligned BN and BN/C nanofiber arrays were successfully fabricated through a cost-effective top-down synthesis approach. The process mainly consists of four critical steps including standard lithography, oxygen plasma etching, carbonization and BN coating or conversion. Vertically aligned BN nanofibers with a diameter around 20-50 nm and high aspect ratio are uniformly produced over large area. The simplicity and scalability of this process makes the process highly controllable and reproducible. The as-synthesized vertically aligned BN and BNC nanofibers have outstanding thermal, field emission properties, are possible candidates for next-generation thermal interface and field emission materials.