A simple and efficient route to synthesize hafnium carbide nanowires by catalytic pyrolysis of a polymer precursor

One-dimensional hafnium carbide (HfC) nanowires were synthesized on carbon fiber by catalyst-assisted pyrolysis of organometallic polymer precursor. The effects of the pyrolysis temperature and the concentration of catalyst on the formation and morphologies of HfC nanowires were investigated, the growth mechanism was explained by thermodynamic calculation. The results show that the diameter of HfC nanowires increases with the pyrolysis temperature increasing; the yield of HfC nanowires was increased by increasing the concentrations of catalyst. The obtained nanowires were randomly oriented around the carbon fibers with the diameters of 50–200 nm and the length of several micrometers, and the product has perfect single crystalline structure. The growth mechanism of the as-prepared HfC nanowires can be explained by solid-liquid-solid (SLS) mechanism.