The synthesis of twinned silicon carbide nanowires by a catalyst-free pyrolytic depositiontechnique

Abstract

A catalyst-free pyrolytic deposition technique has been developed to synthesize twinnedsilicon carbide nanowires using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor. Themorphology, structure and composition of the SiC nanowires were investigated by scanningelectron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM),selected-area electronic diffraction (SAED) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy(EDX). It was observed that high-density stacking faults and microtwins along their axisindexed as the [1 1 1] direction were present in the resulting SiC nanowires. A model wasproposed to explain the formation of the SiC nanowires from decomposition ofTEOS. It is believed that SiC nanowires were grown along the direction of [1 1 1].