Revealing the Effect of Sulfur Compounds for Low-Temperature Synthesis of Boron Nitride Nanotubes from Boron Minerals

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), the structural analogues to carbon (CNTs), attracted considerable attention due their excellent properties. However, synthesis of BNNTs suffers from high-temperature requirement, which increases cost and adds complexity instruments (arc-discharge, plasma-assisted CVD, etc.), preventing further exploration use harmful chemicals (catalytic chemical vapor deposition) resulting in unwanted byproducts. Here, we demonstrate sulfur-containing compound-assisted at a relatively low temperature 1050 °C colemanite via deposition (CVD) method. Comparison between thiophene, l-cystine, l-methionine revealed that thiophene is most effective sulfur compound with more stable decomposition products pressure. Moreover, have evaluated ulexite etidot-67 as an alternative colemanite. We believe our findings can offer solutions commonly encountered problems BNNT terms high energy consumption precursor cost, leading broader various applications.