Eutectic solidification applied to nanofabrication: a strategy to prepare large-scale tungsten carbide nanowalls

Abstract

Close-packing WC as a kind of metallic carbide, possessing good conductivity, high melting point and superior hardness, has numerous intrinsic properties that deserve to be investigated and then explored for use in micro or nano devices in the photoelectronics field. One of the main reasons why WC has not been considered much is that low-dimensional structures such as nanowires and nanowalls are hard to prepare. Here, we developed a novel method to overcome a series of difficulties in the growth of low-dimensional WC nanostructures and managed to apply eutectic solidification in W–Al–C solution to synthesize a high-quality WC nanowall forest and nanowires on a large scale. The experiment was carried out in a high-vacuum (∼10⁻⁴ Pa) chemical vapor deposition system pumped by a turbo molecular pump. We expect that it can be applied as a universal route to prepare low-dimensional nanostructures for refractory metals compound.