HREM study of 3C–SiC nanoparticles: influence of growth conditions on crystalline quality

Abstract

In this contribution, we report on the influence of the growth conditions on the final crystalline quality of 3C–SiC nanoparticles with dimensions around 3–10 nm. The nanoparticles are grown by chemical vapour synthesis in a hot wall reactor using tetramethylsilane [(CH 3) 4Si] as precursor. By altering the decomposition temperature and reactor pressure, the clusters may be amorphous at low temperatures or crystalline at elevated temperatures. Crystalline nanoparticles show a one-dimensional stacking disorder with slip planes lying on different families of {1 1 1} planes when prepared at high reactor pressure. By lowering the pressure, only one-dimensional disordered particles along single (1 1 1) planes are observed.