Production of silicon carbide whiskers from carbon nanoclusters

We report on a method to produce SiC whiskers without the presence of metal catalysts by reacting carbon nanoclusters with SiO at 1700°C. The dark carbon nanotubes with hollow cores are converted to solid greenish SiC whiskers. Electron diffraction and EDX confirm that the product is SiC with a single crystalline hexagonal phase. TEM reveals the lattice image of the whisker with numerous defects. The formation of SiC whiskers produced from carbon nanotubes without using metal catalyst strongly suggests that the reactivity and atomic configuration of carbon nanotubes are crucial to the formation of whiskers.