Highly flexible, nonflammable and free-standing SiC nanowire paper

Abstract

Flexible paper-like semiconductor nanowire materials are expected to meet the criteria for some emerging applications, such as components of flexible solar cells, electrical batteries, supercapacitors, nanocomposites, bendable or wearable electronic or optoelectronic components, and so on. As a new generation of wide-bandgap semiconductors and reinforcements in composites, SiC nanowires have advantages in power electronic applications and nanofiber reinforced ceramic composites. Herein, free-standing SiC nanowire paper consisting of ultralong single-crystalline SiC nanowires was prepared through a facile vacuum filtration approach. The ultralong SiC nanowires were synthesized by a sol-gel and carbothermal reduction method. The flexible paper composed of SiC nanowires is ∼100 nm in width and up to several hundreds of micrometers in length. The nanowires are intertwisted with each other to form a three-dimensional network-like structure. SiC nanowire paper exhibits high flexibility and strong mechanical stability. The refractory performance and thermal stability of SiC nanowire paper were also investigated. The paper not only exhibits excellent nonflammability in fire, but also remains well preserved without visible damage when it is heated in an electric oven at a high temperature (1000 °C) for 3 h. With its high flexibility, excellent nonflammability, and high thermal stability, the free-standing SiC nanowire paper may have the potential to improve the ablation resistance of high temperature ceramic composites.

Synthesis and characterization of ultralong SiC nanowires with unique optical properties, excellent thermal stability and flexible nanomechanical properties

“…Above 1000 °C, the weight sharply increased, demonstrating that the SiC was further oxidized, which weresimilar to the results of earlier reports 54 . Moreover, the thermal stabilities of the SiC NWs obtained by this method were comparable to that of the SiC NWs 55 . It is worth noting that the thermal stability of the SiC NWs obtained from the surface of was slightly better than that of the SiC NWs obtained from the inner walls of the alumina crucible, which might be attributed to the presence of Al with a lower melting point compared to that of SiC 56 .…”

Ultralight, scalable, and high-temperature–resilient ceramic nanofiber sponges

“…It has recently been recognized that ceramic nanocrystalline nanofibers are highly flexible because of their high aspect ratios and nanometer-sized grains ( 24 , 25 ) and can be an ideal candidate for building blocks for 3D elastic assemblies ( 26 ). A variety of ceramic nanofibers have been successfully prepared through electrospinning, which uses an electric field to draw fibers from precursor solutions ( 27 ).…”

Quasi-monodisperse β-SiC nanospheres: Synthesis and application in chemical-mechanical polishing

“…Normally, SiC has been prepared by the high temperature approach ( > 1000°C), including solid state reaction [6], carbothermal reduction [7,8], sol-gel process [9,10], thermal decomposition [11], self-propagating hightemperature route [12], electrospinning [13][14][15], chemical vapor deposition [16] and molten salt synthesis [17,18]. Recently, Qian et al have developed hydrothermal/solvothermal technique to prepare SiC nanomaterials at low temperature (120-700°C) [19][20][21][22].…”