Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has emerged as a strong candidate for twodimensional (2D) material owing to its exciting optoelectrical properties combined with mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and chemical inertness. Super-thin h-BN layers have gained significant attention from the scientific community for many applications, including nanoelectronics, photonics, biomedical, anti-corrosion, and catalysis, among others. This review provides a systematic elaboration of the structural, electrical, mechanical, optical, and thermal properties of h-BN followed by a comprehensive account of stateof-the-art synthesis strategies for 2D h-BN, including chemical exfoliation, chemical, and physical vapor deposition, and other methods that have been successfully developed in recent years. It further elaborates a wide variety of processing routes developed for doping, substitution, functionalization, and combination with other materials to form heterostructures. Based on the extraordinary properties and thermal-mechanical-chemical stability of 2D h-BN, various potential applications of these structures are described.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under

Hybridizing faradaic and non‐faradaic charge storage mechanisms permits hybrid supercapacitors to achieve desirable high energy‐power characteristics. Although the hybridization approach increases the energy density, discrepancies in the reaction kinetics, especially sluggish charge‐transfer reactions in Faradaic battery‐type electrodes, curtails the power density. To increase the power density of battery‐type electrodes, an orthorhombic phase of niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) is one of the most prominent contenders because the orthorhombic crystal structure provides two‐dimensional transport channels for fast Li‐ion diffusion. However, such ultrafast Li‐ion diffusion cannot be realized due to its electrical‐insulating nature. Herein, we synthesized a composite of the orthorhombic phase of niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) interconnected with reduced graphene oxide nanosheets via facile microwave assisted methods. Such a dual‐conductive composite anode exhibits excellent rate performance to match that of the cathode which operates conventional adsorption‐desorption charge storage mechanism. By combining the composite anode with a nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (N‐rGO) cathode, the device delivers maximum energy density of 89 Wh kg−1 (at 125 W kg−1), and the energy density of 20 Wh kg−1 is retained even at 3500 W kg−1, which is one of the highest energy density reported for Nb2O5 based HSC to the best of our knowledge.

Li-S batteries still suffer from two of the major challenges: polysulfide shuttle and low inherent conductivity of sulfur. Here, we report a facile way to develop a bifunctional separator coated with fluorinated multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Mild fluorination does not affect the inherent graphitic structure of carbon nanotubes as shown by transmission electron microscopy. Fluorinated carbon nanotubes show an improved capacity retention by trapping/repelling lithium polysulfides at the cathode, while simultaneously acting as the “second current collector”. Moreover, reduced charge-transfer resistance and enhanced electrochemical performance at the cathode-separator interface result in a high gravimetric capacity of around 670 mAh g−1 at 4C. Unique chemical interactions between fluorine and carbon at the separator and the polysulfides, studied using DFT calculations, establish a new direction of utilizing highly electronegative fluorine moieties and absorption-based porous carbons for mitigation of polysulfide shuttle in Li-S batteries.