Synthesis and field emission properties of titanium carbide nanowires

Single crystalline TiC nanowires have been synthesized through a chloride-assisted carbothermal reduction process using active carbon, TiO2 and NaCl powders as precursors and carbon-coated cobalt or nickel nanoparticles as a catalyst. The products were characterized by x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The TiC nanowires have a face-centred cubic structure with a typical diameter of 20–50 nm and a length of up to a few microns. The formation of the product could be well correlated with the characteristic core–shell structure of the catalyst used. The field emission of the TiC nanowires follows the conventional Fowler–Nordheim behaviour and shows a low turn-on field of about 7.1 V µm−1 and good emission stability.