Mass production of very thin single-crystal silicon nitride nanobelts

We report the large-scale synthesis of very thin single-crystalline Si3N4 nanobelts with high yield via catalyst-assisted pyrolysis of polymeric precursors. The obtained nanobelts, which show a perfect crystal structure and smooth surface, are up to several millimeters in length with typical width and thickness of similar to 800 nm and tens of nanometers, respectively. It is believed that the nanobelts were grown via a vapor-solid process, in which Al catalyst played a key role. This result provides a possibility for mass producing high quality, very thin Si3N4 nanobelts. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.