Low-Temperature Pseudomorphic Transformation of Ordered Hierarchical Macro-mesoporous SiO2/C Nanocomposite to SiC via Magnesiothermic Reduction

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 132; no. 16; pp. 5552 - 5553
• Main Authors: Shi, Yifeng, Zhang, Fan, Hu, Yong-Sheng, Sun, Xiaohong, Zhang, Yichi, Lee, Hyung Ik, Chen, Liquan, Stucky, Galen D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 28.04.2010; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: solar (photovoltaic), solid state lighting, phonons, thermoelectric, bio-inspired, energy storage (including batteries and capacitors), electrodes - solar, defects, charge transport, materials and chemistry by design, optics, synthesis (novel materials), synthesis (self-assembly), synthesis (scalable processing)
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja1001136

A magnesiothermic reduction synthesis approach is reported for direct conversion of SiO2/C composite nanostructures to corresponding SiC materials without losing their nanostructure morphologies. Crystalline SiC materials can be obtained by this approach at a temperature as low as 600 °C, only approximately half of that applied in the generally used carbothermal reduction and preceramic polymer pyrolysis methods. An ordered hierarchical macro-mesoporous SiC material was synthesized for the first time as a demonstration. This pseudomorphic transformation can be regarded as a general synthesis method for different kinds of SiC nanostructures, and it can also be readily extended to other metal carbide materials as well as TiC.