Synthesis of SiC/SiO₂ nanocables by chemical vapor deposition

SiC/SiO₂ nanocables were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition using methyltrichlorosilane as precursor at atmospheric pressure. The as-prepared product was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, FT-IR spectrum and Raman spectroscopy. The resulting nanocables consist of a 30-50 nm diameter single-crystalline β-SiC core and a 10-20 nm thick amorphous SiO₂ shell, and their lengths are up to several hundreds of micrometers. The SiC core possesses a lot of stacking faults, and grows along the [1 1 1] direction.