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

A catalyst-free pyrolytic deposition technique has been developed to synthesize twinned silicon carbide nanowires using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor. The morphology, structure and composition of the SiC nanowires were investigated by scanning electron 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 axis indexed as the [1 1 1] direction were present in the resulting SiC nanowires. A model was proposed to explain the formation of the SiC nanowires from decomposition of TEOS. It is believed that SiC nanowires were grown along the direction of [1 1 1].