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 mu m(-1) and good emission stability.