High emissivity coatings have been widely used in many high temperature applications. Here we report a novel structure of magnetron sputtering silicon carbide (SiC) films on Ni photonic crystals (PCs) to improve emissivity performance. It is found that SiC coatings reveal two-dimensional patterned structures due to their preferential growth on the skeleton of Ni PCs. The spectral emissivity results show periodic structures and surface-porous structured SiC can enhance the coatings' spectral emissivity because of higher rough surface, lower reflectivity and magnitude of thermal fluctuations. The method holds promising potential for preparing a series of high emissivity coatings and highly ordered metal-ceramics composites microstructures for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) radiator, pyroelectric and other photonics applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.