Recent advances and challenges in silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic nanoarchitectures and their applications

Silicon carbide (SiC) is recognized as a notable semiconductor because of its outstanding characteristics, for instance wide-bandgap, outstanding magnetic properties, extraordinary chemical inertness, high thermal, mechanical, optical and electronic properties, generally utilized in solid-state lighting and power electronics because of its insufficient inherent carrier and high thermal conductivity under high-power/high-temperature/high-voltage or other such harsh environments. In the present review the authors discuss SiC and their physico-chemical properties as a new generation SiC functional materials and ceramic matrix composites with the primary purpose of improving their wide range of recent applications. However, it is to be noted that the biocompatibility and other such recent applications of SiC have been seldom understood by the researchers in spite of the fact that there is an ample scope for such studies on SiC. In the present review, the authors focus on the comprehensive overview of the introduction to ceramic materials, its classifications, properties of ceramics and 3D-printed composite ceramic materials followed by state-of-art of silicon carbide along with their structure, its polytypes, properties and defects in SiC. Further multidisciplinary applications of SiC nanoarchitectures have been systematically summarized, including photocatalytic technology, membrane technology gas- chemical sensing, field emission transistors, nanoelectronics, medical implants, biosensing and so on. Finally, the future prospects and research directions of SiC nanoarchitectures are proposed.