Synthesis of SiC nanonecklaces via chemical vapor deposition in the presence of a catalyst

SiC nanonecklaces were synthesized on a large scale on as-prepared Si-SiC ceramic substrates via chemical vapor deposition with ferrocene as a catalyst. Structural, morphological, and elemental analyses showed that the as-synthesized nanonecklaces consisted of 3C-SiC stems up to several hundreds of micrometers in length with diameters of 200-400 nm, and SiO2 beads with diameters of 0.3-1 mu m. On the basis of the experimental and theoretical characterizations, a combination of growth mechanism of a vapor-liquidsolid-stem and modulation-bead was proposed as the growth mode of the SiC nanonecklaces.