Beaded silicon carbide nanochains via carbothermal reduction of carbonaceous silica xerogel

Novel silicon carbide nanostructures, beaded nanochains, are prepared from the carbothermal reduction of a carbonaceous silica xerogel with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and lanthanum nitrate as additives. The nanochains consist of a stem with a diameter of about 50 nm and uniform beads with diameters of 100–200 nm. It is demonstrated that the tensile strength of an epoxy composite filled with the SiC nanochains improves significantly due to the unusual morphology of the nanochains.