AbstractPhenolic resin and tetraethoxysilane were used to prepare a binary carbonaceous silicon xerogel, the precursor of silicon carbide (SiC). By employing different additives in the sol-gel process, a series of xerogel precursors with differently chemical composition were obtained. Heating these xerogels to 1250°C, nanostructured β-SiC with various morphologies including nanowires, nanofibers, nanoparticles and mesoporous SiC were produced via carbothermal reduction. The preparation method of the xerogels was presented and the influences of different additives on the sol-gel process and the SiC formation were discussed in this paper.
Formation of silicon carbide layer on the vapor-grown carbon nanofiber® by sol-gel and carbothermal reduction techniques