Preparation and characterization of mesoporous SiC/SiO2 composite nanorods

Abstract Mesoporous rod-like SiC has been prepared by using SBA-15 as hard template and sucrose as carbon source through a vapor-solid mechanism. The material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electronmicroscopy (HRTEM) and thermalgravimetric (TG) analysis. The obtained material exhibits different morphologies, and consists of a rod-like SiC core and amorphous silica shell which is due to the excessive silica during the reaction between silica and carbon to form SiC . The diameter of the SiC nanorods are ranged from 8 to 60 nm, and the silica shell has a thickness of about 4 nm. The silica coating SiC nanorods possess more porous structure than pure SiC and in turn make it more useful in catalytic fields.