  Dielectrics are insulating materials used in many different electronic
devices and play an important role in all of them. Current advanced electronic
devices use dielectric materials with a high dielectric constant and avoid high
leakage currents. However, these materials show several intrinsic problems, and
also a bad interaction with adjacent materials. Therefore, the race for finding
a suitable dielectric material for current and future electronic devices is
still open. In this context two dimensional [2D] materials have become a
serious option, not only thanks to their advanced properties, but also to the
development of scalable synthesis methods. Graphene has been the most explored
2D material for electronic devices. However, graphene has no band gap, and
therefore it cannot be used as dielectric. MoS2 and other 2D transition metal
dichalcogenides (TMDs) are semiconducting 2D materials that can provide more
versatility in electronic devices. In this PhD thesis I have investigated the
use of monolayer and multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as dielectric
for electronic devices, as it is a 2D material with a band gap of ~5.9 eV. My
work has mainly focused on the synthesis of the h-BN using chemical vapor
deposition, the study of its intrinsic morphological and electrical properties
at the nanoscale, and its performance as dielectric in different electronic
devices, such as capacitors and memristors. Overall, our experiments indicate
that h-BN is a very reliable dielectric material, and that it can be
successfully used in capacitors and memristors. Moreover, h-BN shows additional
performances never observed in traditional dielectrics, such as volatile
resistive switching, which may also open the door for new applications.
