HREM study of 3C-SiC nanoparticles: Influence of growth conditions on crystalline quality

In this contribution, we report on the influence of the growth conditions on the final crystalline quality of 3C-SiC nanoparticles with dimensions around 3-10 nm. The nanoparticles are grown by chemical vapour synthesis in a hot wall reactor using tetramethylsilane [(CH₃)₄Si] as precursor. By altering the decomposition temperature and reactor pressure, the clusters may be amorphous at low temperatures or crystalline at elevated temperatures. Crystalline nanoparticles show a one-dimensional stacking disorder with slip planes lying on different families of {1 1 1} planes when prepared at high reactor pressure. By lowering the pressure, only one-dimensional disordered particles along single (1 1 1) planes are observed.