The discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 1 has aroused a great deal of interest in one-dimensional nanomaterials 2,3- Carbon nanotubes have also been used as templates to fabricate other one-dimensional nanomaterials 4. Niobium carbide (NbC) is a very important non-oxide ceramic for its high-melting point (3610 deg C), high hardness, excellent chemical stability, and good wear resistance. NbC also exhibits high conductivity with a normal resistivity of 4.6 mOhm/cm and superconductivity at 12 K 5. Due to these attractive properties, NbC has potential applications in mechanical, chemical, and microelectronic industries 6. NbC was usually prepared by various high temperature reactions 7. Recently, various efforts have been made to synthesize NbC at lower temperatures 8,9. However, there is so far no report about the preparation of NbC nanotubes. Preparing crystalline NbC, especially NbC nanotubes at low temperature still remains a challenge.
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