Synthesis of silicon carbide nanowires by solid phase source chemical vapor deposition

In this paper, we report a simple approach to synthesize silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires by solid phase source chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at relatively low temperatures. 3C-SiC nanowires covered by an amorphous shell were obtained on a thin film which was first deposited on silicon substrates, and the nanowires are 20–80 nm in diameter and several μm in length, with a growth direction of [200]. The growth of the nanowires agrees well on vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process and the film deposited on the substrates plays an important role in the formation of nanowires.