Silicon carbide whiskers and nanowhiskers

The most important products, which can be synthesized from the vapor phase, are silicon whiskers and nanowhiskers, silicon carbide whiskers and nanowhiskers, short carbon and graphite fibers, and carbon nanotubes. 

Tiny VLS nanowhiskers can be obtained by chemical vapor deposition with less than 1/100th the diameter of ordinary VLS-CVD silicon carbide whiskers by proper selection of the metal catalyst and process conditions. Indeed, these "cobweb" [2] or nanowhiskers have been made with diameters of <20 nm. To the naked eye these whiskers look like a blue cloud created by light scattering similar to that which causes the sky to appear blue. 

---