Long SiC nanowires synthesized from off-gases of the polycarbosilane-derived SiC preparation

In this communication, we report on the attempt to make full use of the off-gases from polycarbosilane-derived SiC preparation, and we successfully synthesized long SiC nanowires in large areas with Fe(NO3)3 as catalyst. The nanowires have diameters of about 80–300 nm and lengths of millimeters, and they are identified as single crystals β-SiC along the 〈111〉 direction. The VLS mechanism was employed to interpret the nanowire growth.