Oxidation endurance of boron nitride nanotube field emitters

Boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials have negative electron affinity, which makes BN a promising cold electron emission material. BN nanotube (BNNT) field emitters show excellent oxidation endurance after high temperature thermal annealing at 600 °C in air ambient. There is no damage to the BNNTs after the thermal annealing at a temperature of 600 °C and also no degradation of field emission properties. In this work, the thermal annealed BNNTs exhibit a high maximum emission current density of 8.39 mA/cm² and robust long-term emission stability. The results reveal that BNNTs can be a promising emitter material for field emission devices under harsh environments.