Transient and in situ Growth of Nanostructured SiC on Carbon Fibers toward Highly Durable Catalysis

Carbon is ubiquitously used as catalyst supports in various clean energy technologies, particularly emerging electrocatalysis, yet it often suffers slow oxidation and corrosion along with performance degradation. The harmonious combination of refractory silicon carbide (SiC, chemically inert) with carbon is alluring but often a great challenge, particularly to achieve desirable nanostructures and strong interfaces. Herein, a shockwave-type transient heating is designed (> 1750 degrees C for 1 s per pulse) for controllable growth of conformal SiC coating and massive SiC nanowires on carbon fibers (denoted as CF/SiC-NW), which serves as a high surface area and durable support for catalysis under harsh environments. The transient heating in SiO vapor triggers in situ transformation of the carbon surface into a seamless SiC protective layer, while the following fast cooling is essential for the growth of numerous self-assembled SiC nanowires. The CF/SiC-NW exhibits excellent structural stability in the air at high temperatures, in concentrated acidic/alkaline solutions after electrochemical stressing for 2000 cycles, and in oxygen evolution reaction after 10 h of continuous operation. This strategy enables delicate structure control in refractory carbides and is also general for various carbon/carbide functional materials (e.g., C/TiC, C/WC) for electro- or electrified catalysis under harsh conditions.