SiC nanowires have been widely used in various fields such as photoelectric devices, photocatalysis, energy storage and structural ceramics, owing to their excellent physical, chemical, electrical and optical properties. Among various fabricated methods, the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is attracting increasingly attention on account of its simple process, controllable composition and good repeatability. In recent years, impressive strides have been made in fabrication of SiC nanowires by CVD method and optimizing the microstructure of SiC nanowires. SiC nanowires with various morphologies such as wire-like, chain-bead, bamboo-like, spiral-like and core-shell structures have been fabricated via CVD method using low-cost Si, graphite and resin powders, and adopting advanced fluid-bed equipment. And the fabricated SiC nanowires have excellent luminous properties, field emission properties and wave absorbing properties. The previous works have established a new avenue for fabrication of SiC nanowires with desirable structures and morphologies as well as the development of newly functional SiC nano devices. At present, though the purity of SiC nanowires fabricated by CVD via catalyst-free method is high, many drawbacks including poor controllability of morphology, size and crystallization direction as well as high fabrication temperature and low yield restrict its development. The catalysts, molten salts and oxides assisted CVD method can significantly reduce the fabrication temperature, increase the reaction rate and yield of SiC nanowires, but it is difficult to eliminate the introduced impurities in SiC nanowires. Therefore, the systematic study should be focused on increa-sing the purity of SiC nanowires and removing impurities in the future; attention should also be paid to develop new routes for low-cost and large-scale fabrication of SiC nanowires, and the microstructure of SiC nanowires should be further optimized in order to expand their application fields. This review offers a retrospection of the research efforts with respect to SiC nanowires fabrication by CVD method both at home and abroad, and provides elaborate descriptions about the advantages and disadvantages of various preparation methods such as catalysts-free, catalysts-assisted, molten salts assisted and oxide-assisted. The key issues and effective research methods are proposed to provide reference for low-cost, large-scale production and application of SiC nanowires. © 2021, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.
