Growth of SiC NWs by vapor phase technique using Fe as catalyst

•SiC nanowires were successfully synthesized via a Vapor Phase Epitaxy technique.•The dewetting stage morphology was characterized using SEM and AFM techniques.•NWs were characterized by SEM, TEM and XRD and they showed a cubic crystal structure.•The use of iron catalyst allowed to obtain a nanosystem using biocompatible elements.

In this paper we report on the growth of silicon carbide nanowires deposited on silicon substrate with vapor phase technique at atmospheric pressure, using propane and silane as precursors and hydrogen as carrier gas.A thin layer of iron deposited on the silicon surface was used as catalyst.The morphology, crystal structure and details such as the growth direction of the as-prepared SiC NWs were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).The SiC NWs have a diameter ranging from 30 to 100 nm and length of tens of micrometers.XRD and High resolution TEM confirm the cubic structure of the nanowires and evidence a growth habit along the 〈111〉 direction.