Heterostructured B₆Nx/BN Nanocable and Nanofeather Nanojunctions

One of the arduous challenges in nanotechnology is to mass-fabricate useful and desired nanostructures and devices using cost-effective processes. Here we report the first creation of B 6 N x /BN coaxial nanowires and branched nanofeather nanojunctions with radial heterostructures using simple nitriding processing of pure boron nanostructured precursors at 1200 °C. The produced nanostructures consist of a core nanowire with rhombohedral structure and stoichiometry of B 6 N x, a metastable high pressure phase, and a hexagonal BN sheath. We suggest that the BN shell layers formed first act as the high-pressure nanocell to provide the foundation for the formation of the B 6 N x core in the nitriding process. This simple process might enable the studies of high-pressure-induced phase transformation and reaction in a nanosystem at ambient pressure, and be extended to bulk fabrication of a wealth of nano-heterostructures and nanocomposites in a B−C−N−O system.