Thermal conductivity of individual polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofibers embedding boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) fillers has been measured. The PVP nanofibers were electrospun on suspended microdevices in order to better understand the effect of BNNT fillers on the thermal conductivity of polymeric nanofibers. Various material characterization methods provided evidence that ketone group in the PVP interacted with the surface of BNNTs via strong intermolecular forces, thereby resulting in an effective heat transfer between the polymer matrix and BNNTs. The individual PVP nanofiber containing 30 wt % of BNNTs exhibited approximately 2fold higher thermal conductivity than that of the bulk PVP.

Boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) have very attractive electrical and optical properties due to their unique edge states and width-related properties. Herein, for the first time, BNNRs were produced by a simple reflux of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) in nitric acid containing water, which had led to unzipped sidewalls through hydrolysis. Their high reactivity that originated from edges was verified via a strong interaction with methylene blue.

Graphene nanoribbons were synthesized by chemically unzipping double-walled carbon nanotubes followed by evaluation of their nanostructural changes upon thermal annealing.