Preparation and photoluminescence of netlike and curved β-SiC nanostructures

Abstract

The netlike and curved β-SiC nanostructures were synthesized by the carbothermal reduction of the carbonaceous silica xerogel, in which tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and phenolic resin were used to prepare a carbonaceous silica xerogel and magnesium nitrate was employed as additive. The products were obtained by heating the xerogel at 1300°C for 6h in argon flow (200ml/min). The products mainly consist of netlike β-SiC nanostructures and curved β-SiC nanowires. The netlike SiC nanostructures have a novel pore structure of lotus root, and the diameter of circular hole is 500–1000nm. The curved β-SiC nanowires have a diameter of 300–500nm and a length of hundreds microns. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of netlike and curved β-SiC nanostructures at room temperature shows three emission peaks at 486nm, 494nm and 503nm, which may be due to the effect of the morphology, size confinement effects and the oxygen vacancy in the amorphous SiO2, respectively.