Silicon carbide nanorods were prepared via reacting silicon nanopowders and multi-walled carbon nanotubes for 4h at 1100–1200C in a molten NaCl-NaF binary salt under an Ar atmosphere. The synthesised SiC nanorods were characterised by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and spherical aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction results revealed that multi-walled carbon nanotubes had converted into SiC after firing at 1200C. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy observations revealed a complex stacking sequence aligned along the SiC-rod direction. A combination of electron energy loss spectroscopy and aberration-corrected spherical aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopillustrated the resulting nanorod composed of 3C-SiC and some stacking faults. The synthesised SiC nanorods to a large extent retained the morphology of carbon nanotube reactants, indicating that the "template-growth" mechanism had dominated the synthesis process. The conversion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes into SiC nanorods was strongly dependent on reaction temperature and salt composition. It was found that molten NaCl-NaF binary salts could effectively accelerate the SiC formation.

Carbon Nanotube to SiC Nanorod Conversion in Molten Salt Studied by EELS and Aberration Corrected HRTEM. W.Xie, G.Möbus, S.Zhang: Journal of Physics - Conference Series, 2010, 241[1], 012093