A Spectroscopic and ab Initio Study of the Formation of Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes from Thermal Decomposition of Silicon Carbide
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Alessandro De Vita; Giacomo Levita; Alessio Comisso; Andrea Goldoni; Silvano Lizzit; Luca Petaccia; Rosanna Larciprete
- Source
- Nano letters
8 (2008): 4335–4341.
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Levita, G; Petaccia, L; Comisso, A; Lizzit, S; Larciprete, R; Goldoni, A; De Vita, A/titolo:A Spectroscopic and ab Initio Study of the Formation of Graphite and Carbon Nanotubes from Thermal Decomposition of Silicon Carbide/doi:/rivista:Nano letters (Print)/anno:2008/pagina_da:4335/pagina_a:4341/intervallo_pagine:4335–4341/volume:8
- Subject
- Nanotube
Materials science
Silicon
chemistry.chemical_element
Bioengineering
Nanotechnology
Carbon nanotube
law.invention
chemistry.chemical_compound
HETEROEPITAXIAL GRAPHITE
law
Silicon carbide
General Materials Science
Graphite
carbon nanotube
graphite
Mechanical Engineering
Thermal decomposition
modeling
INTERFACE FORMATION
General Chemistry
Condensed Matter Physics
GRAPHITIZATION
6H-SIC(0001)
SIC(0001)
chemistry
Chemical engineering
Carbide-derived carbon
Carbon
- Language
- ISSN
- 1530-6992
1530-6984
We report an experimental and first-principles study of the thermal decomposition of 6H-SiC wafers, yielding graphite on the Si-terminated face and carbon nanotubes on the C-terminated face. The asymmetry of the carbon structure formation mechanisms is rationalized in terms of the different termination geometries of the opposite SIC faces. First-principles modeling reveals that horizontal, pi-delocalized carbon structures form on the Si-terminated face. The bonding network geometry of the C-terminated face favors instead the formation of vertically oriented carbon structures, which can be interpreted as nanotube lateral wall precursors.