Growth of SiO2 hierarchical nanostructure on SiC nanowires using thermal decomposition of ethanol and titanium tetrachloride and its FTIR and PL property

Novel SiO2 hierarchical nanostructure has been grown on SiC nanowires using thermal decomposition of a mixture of ethanol and titanium tetrachloride. Novel nanostructure was realized in one synthesis route. Based on SEM and TEM observations, the hierarchical nanostructure consists of core-shell SiC–SiO2 main stem nanowire and a lot of SiO2 nanorod branches grown on the main stem. A mean diameter of SiC central cores was about 40 nm and their lengths reach about 100 μm. The lengths and diameters of SiO2 nanorod-like branches were ranged in 400–800 nm and 30–120 nm, respectively. The growth of core-shell SiC–SiO2 nanowires obeyed vapor–liquid–solid mechanism and the SiO2 nanorod-like branches grew via vapor–solid mechanism. The infrared absorption and photoluminescence properties of the grown nanostructure were investigated.