Preparation and characterization of nanoboron for slurry fuel applications

•Magnesiothermic reduction is a promising and scalable method for boron production.•Highly amorphous and >95% pure nano boron of 50–130 nm particle size was successfully prepared.•Span and tween surfactants were tested to increase the settling time of boron in jet fuels.•With 1%:1% Span-80:Tween-80, a 10 wt% nano boron nano fuel was stable upto 7 days.•Challenges and prospects on scale up of nano boron and slurry fuel preparation are discussed.