Facile growth of oriented SiC nanowires arrays on carbon fiber cloth via CVD

Oriented SiC nanowires (SiCNWs) arrays have garnered much attention owing to their special properties such as outstanding electron emission. Although many preparation methods of oriented SiCNWs arrays have been explored, it is also pivotal to develop a facile and controllable fabrication method. Herein, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach using Fe(NO3)3 as catalyst was utilized to prepare oriented SiCNWs arrays. Morphology and structural analyses demonstrated that the in-situ grown oriented SiCNWs arrays were single crystalline 3C–SiC with smooth surface and a diameter that increased continuously from about 0.2 μm near the carbon fiber to 0.7 μm at the tip, growing toward [111] direction directly. A proper growth mode, Fe–Si solution-assisted vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism, was proposed to expound the growth of oriented SiCNWs arrays by thermodynamic calculations and tests analyses. Meanwhile, it was proved that the confinement and driving effects of the Fe catalyst led to the formation of the oriented SiCNWs arrays. This method is expected to realize the large-scale preparation of oriented SiCNWs, which will be applied in the fields of toughening materials, field emission, energy storage, and so on.