Hydrothermal synthesis of high quality free-standing VO2(B) thin film and its thermal resistance characteristics

•We fabricate highly crystallized, free standing VO2(B) thin film by hydrothermal method.•VO2(B) shows an high intrinsic room temperature TCR of −3.0%/K in the (0 0 1) plane, and a TCR of −1.7%/K out of the (0 0 1) plane.•We reveal that the contact effect is one of the origin of the anisotropic TCR.•Semiconductor-metal transition (SMT) out of the (0 0 1) plane at high electrical field is revealed for the first time in VO2(B).