Synthesis and field emission properties of titanium carbide nanowires

Abstract

Single crystalline TiC nanowires have been synthesized through achloride-assisted carbothermal reduction process using active carbon,TiO2 and NaCl powders as precursors and carbon-coated cobalt or nickel nanoparticles as a catalyst.The products were characterized by x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, energy-dispersivex-ray spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The TiC nanowires have aface-centred cubic structure with a typical diameter of 20–50 nm and a length of up to a fewmicrons. The formation of the product could be well correlated with the characteristiccore–shell structure of the catalyst used. The field emission of the TiC nanowires followsthe conventional Fowler–Nordheim behaviour and shows a low turn-on field of about7.1 V µm−1 and good emission stability.