Company History

BNNT, LLC is a startup company that opened its doors in 2013 in Newport News, Virginia, minutes from NASA Langley Research Center, the U. S. Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab, and the National Institute of Aerospace. The roots of BNNT, LLC began to grow in 2000 when collaborators from NASA and JLab first met and looked for new ways to make carbon nanotubes using the high power free electron laser recently constructed at Jefferson Lab. As the peak of the carbon nanotube hype cycle began to wane in the mid-2000's, the team, now with an additional collaborator from NIA, turned to a new and exciting material--the boron nitride nanotube (BNNT).

High quality BNNTs had first been synthesized in small quantities in the mid 1990's, but it had proven difficult to scale up production. In 2009, the NASA/JLab/NIA team announced that they had found the key, the use of nano-droplets of liquid boron under pressure as a catalyst. Because the melting point of liquid boron is over 2000 0C, it was not surprising that it took the collaboration of laser scientists and rocket scientists to make the discovery! In 2016 the team was awarded the NASA agency-wide "Government Invention of the Year" for their development of what became known as the "HTP" (high temperature/pressure) method of manufacturing BNNTs.

In 2010, impressed with the work of the nanotube team, Roy Whitney, the retiring Chief  Technology Officer of JLab took up the project of turning the discovery into a business, recruiting the lead JLab and NASA inventors, Kevin Jordan and Mike Smith respectively, and becoming the first president and CEO of BNNT, LLC.

In 2016, Tom Henneberg took the reins as CEO and president of BNNT Materials, the parent company of BNNT, LLC. A Naval Academy engineering graduate, ex-Navy SEAL, McKinsey alum, Stanford MBA, Boeing Ventures founder, and startup-to-IPO veteran, Tom Henneberg has brought a unique mix of technical understanding and business ground truth to the growing venture.

Our Mission

Today BNNT LLC manufactures the highest quality BNNTs in the world on a two building site within walking distance of where the original discovery was made on the Virginia Peninsula. Leading what is now a global BNNT industry, our mission is to make the highest quality BNNT materials at the lowest possible price and develop groundbreaking BNNT application technologies and products.