Growth and characterization of silicon carbide nanowires

A simple, direct synthesis method was used to grow the core-shell SiC-SiOx nanowires by heating the NiO catalyzed silicon substrate. The carbothermal reduction of WO3 by C provided a reductive environment to synthesize the crystalline SiC nanowires covered with the SiOx sheath in the growth temperature of 1000-1100degreesC. After hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching, the cubic beta-SiC nanowires were extracted from the core-shell nanowires in large quantities. A solid-liquid-solid (SLS) mechanism was proposed for the growth of the core-shell SiC-SiOx nanowires.