FIRST-PRINCIPLES STUDY ON β-SiC/BNNT CORE/SHELL NANOCABLE

Abstract

In this paper, we studied the structural and electronic properties of core/shell nanocables composed of cubic silicon carbide nanowires (β- SiCNW ) and boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) using first-principles pseudopotential plane wave method within density functional theory. Our results show that the β- SiC /BNNT heterojunction structures are metallic, which primarily originates from the contributions of the BNNTs and the surfaces of SiCNW s. The BNNTs exhibit metallic characters after the SiC nanowires are inserted. The transition of the BNNTs is attributed to the charge transfer between BNNTs and SiCNW s.