摘要
Pristine polycrystalline copper silicide nanowires were synthesized via facile semi-batch solution reaction on Cu foil at low temperature, 400 °C. Comparing with as-grown products, the annealed (800 °C) Cu 3 Si nanowires array exhibits excellent field emission properties, the turn-on field was reduced from 1.16 V/μm to 0.40 V/μm and the field enhancement factor (β) was improved from 1400 to 4637. Field emission properties of the annealed copper silicide nanowires show the performance of field emission could be enhanced through the annealing process. In-situ TEM annealing of copper silicide nanowires array was used to investigate the thermal effect on microstructure of copper silicide nanowires. In-situ XRD annealing results provide the phase transformation information at varied temperature and show that the transition phase Cu 15 Si 4 existed to assist in growing single crystalline Cu 3 Si nanowire. Systemic study can help to realize the solution-phase metal silicide reaction growth mechanism; furthermore, the effect of annealing temperature on nanowires shows the potential towards fabrication of high performance field emission devices.