Preceramic Polymer (preceramic + polymer)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Effect of Hypervelocity Impact on Microcellular Ceramic Foams from a Preceramic Polymer

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS, Issue 11 2003
P. Colombo
A promising material for hypervelocity impact shields in spacecraft and satellites has been found in lightweight microcellular SiOC foams. The foam stops the projectile and the debris from the impacted bumper facesheet within a few millimeters (see Figure for a cross-section of the crater) at speeds up to 5.1 km,s,1. The impacted SiOC ceramic did not react with incoming debris, and no phase transformation or compositional change was observed. [source]


Kinetic Studies of Mullite Synthesis from Alumina Nanoparticles and a Preceramic Polymer

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 8 2008
Flavio Griggio
The crystallization kinetics of mullite formation in a diphasic precursor consisting of a silicone resin filled with commercial ,-alumina nanoparticles (15 nm mean particle size, specific surface area of 100 m2/g), heated in air from 1250° to 1350°C, was studied by X-ray diffraction. Transitional ,-alumina and amorphous silica from the pyrolysis of the preceramic polymer exhibited a remarkable reactivity, as demonstrated by a very low incubation time (from 500 s at 1250°C to 20 s at 1350°C), a high mullite yield (about 80 vol%, after 100 s at 1350°C), and a low activation energy for nucleation (677±60 kJ/mol). The activation energy values found were lower than those reported previously for other diphasic systems, including sol,gel precursors. Besides the high specific surface of nanosized ,-alumina particles, the low energy barrier could be attributed to the highly reactive silica deriving from the oxidation of Si,CH3 bonds in the silicone and to the homogeneous dispersion of the nanosized filler inside the preceramic polymer. Furthermore, the possibility of applying plastic shaping processing methods to the mixture of a preceramic polymer and nanosized filler makes this approach particularly valuable, in comparison, for instance, with sol,gel based alternatives. [source]


Centrifugal Casting of Thin-Walled Ceramic Tubes from Preceramic Polymers

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 7 2003
Reinhold Melcher
Thin-walled (wall thickness, 100,2000 ,m) mono- and bilayered ceramic tubes in the system Si,O,C,(N) were obtained by centrifugal casting of a polysiloxane/filler suspension. Si and SiC powders were dispersed in polyorganosiloxane/triethoxysilane solutions. After centrifugal casting in a Teflon tube with a rotational speed of 2000 rpm and subsequent cross-linking at 130°C and 60 rpm, the tubes were pyrolyzed in argon or in nitrogen at 1400,1600°C. Bilayered tubes with controlled variation of porosity were obtained by overcasting the monolayer green tubes with a modified slurry composition. [source]


Polymer-Derived Ceramics: 40 Years of Research and Innovation in Advanced Ceramics

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 7 2010
Paolo Colombo
Preceramic polymers were proposed over 30 years ago as precursors for the fabrication of mainly Si-based advanced ceramics, generally denoted as polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs). The polymer to ceramic transformation process enabled significant technological breakthroughs in ceramic science and technology, such as the development of ceramic fibers, coatings, or ceramics stable at ultrahigh temperatures (up to 2000°C) with respect to decomposition, crystallization, phase separation, and creep. In recent years, several important advances have been achieved such as the discovery of a variety of functional properties associated with PDCs. Moreover, novel insights into their structure at the nanoscale level have contributed to the fundamental understanding of the various useful and unique features of PDCs related to their high chemical durability or high creep resistance or semiconducting behavior. From the processing point of view, preceramic polymers have been used as reactive binders to produce technical ceramics, they have been manipulated to allow for the formation of ordered pores in the meso-range, they have been tested for joining advanced ceramic components, and have been processed into bulk or macroporous components. Consequently, possible fields of applications of PDCs have been extended significantly by the recent research and development activities. Several key engineering fields suitable for application of PDCs include high-temperature-resistant materials (energy materials, automotive, aerospace, etc.), hard materials, chemical engineering (catalyst support, food- and biotechnology, etc.), or functional materials in electrical engineering as well as in micro/nanoelectronics. The science and technological development of PDCs are highly interdisciplinary, at the forefront of micro- and nanoscience and technology, with expertise provided by chemists, physicists, mineralogists, and materials scientists, and engineers. Moreover, several specialized industries have already commercialized components based on PDCs, and the production and availability of the precursors used has dramatically increased over the past few years. In this feature article, we highlight the following scientific issues related to advanced PDCs research: (1) General synthesis procedures to produce silicon-based preceramic polymers. (2) Special microstructural features of PDCs. (3) Unusual materials properties of PDCs, that are related to their unique nanosized microstructure that makes preceramic polymers of great and topical interest to researchers across a wide spectrum of disciplines. (4) Processing strategies to fabricate ceramic components from preceramic polymers. (5) Discussion and presentation of several examples of possible real-life applications that take advantage of the special characteristics of preceramic polymers. Note: In the past, a wide range of specialized international symposia have been devoted to PDCs, in particular organized by the American Ceramic Society, the European Materials Society, and the Materials Research Society. Most of the reviews available on PDCs are either not up to date or deal with only a subset of preceramic polymers and ceramics (e.g., silazanes to produce SiCN-based ceramics). Thus, this review is focused on a large number of novel data and developments, and contains materials from the literature but also from sources that are not widely available. [source]


SiOC Ceramic Monoliths with Hierarchical Porosity

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED CERAMIC TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Cekdar Vakifahmetoglu
SiOC glass monoliths possessing hierarchical porosity were produced by a one-pot processing method. Periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) particles were embedded into a foamed siloxane preceramic polymer. After pyrolysis at 1000°C in inert atmosphere, open celled, permeable SiOC ceramic monoliths with a high amount of pores, ranging in size from hundred of micrometers to a few nanometers, were obtained. The components possessed a specific surface area of 137 m2/g, indicating the retention of most of the mesopores after the pyrolytic conversion of the PMO precursor particles. These fillers converted to truncated rhombic dodecahedral SiOC mesoporous micron-sized grains, homogeneously distributed throughout the SiOC cellular matrix. The produced porous ceramics possessed compression strength of about 1.7 MPa, which is adequate for their use in several engineering applications. [source]


Growth and Mechanism of Network-Like Branched Si3N4 Nanostructures

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 8 2010
Zhijian Peng
The high-yield synthesis of network-like branched silicon nitride (Si3N4) nanostructures by a simple template catalyst-assisted pyrolysis of a polymer precursor, perhydropolysilazane, was reported. The templates were silicon wafers deposited with Fe films of 5,20 nm in thickness. The processes simply involved thermal cross-linking of the preceramic polymer, crushing of the solidified polymer chunks into fine powder, and thermal pyrolysis of the powder under flowing high-purity nitrogen. The collected white network-like branched nanostructures are ,-Si3N4 of hexagonal phase, and their microstructures, in which the diameters of each linear part of the network-like nanostructure varied in a very wide range from tens of nanometers to hundreds of nanometers, strongly depend on the applied growth parameters, where the key factors are the heating rate and catalyst thickness for change in the diameters. It was proposed that the Si3N4 nanonetworks were formed through "metal-absorption on the surface of nanostructures" model by vapor,liquid,solid mechanism. The reaction mechanism of Si3N4 nanonetworks was also discussed. [source]


Kinetic Studies of Mullite Synthesis from Alumina Nanoparticles and a Preceramic Polymer

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 8 2008
Flavio Griggio
The crystallization kinetics of mullite formation in a diphasic precursor consisting of a silicone resin filled with commercial ,-alumina nanoparticles (15 nm mean particle size, specific surface area of 100 m2/g), heated in air from 1250° to 1350°C, was studied by X-ray diffraction. Transitional ,-alumina and amorphous silica from the pyrolysis of the preceramic polymer exhibited a remarkable reactivity, as demonstrated by a very low incubation time (from 500 s at 1250°C to 20 s at 1350°C), a high mullite yield (about 80 vol%, after 100 s at 1350°C), and a low activation energy for nucleation (677±60 kJ/mol). The activation energy values found were lower than those reported previously for other diphasic systems, including sol,gel precursors. Besides the high specific surface of nanosized ,-alumina particles, the low energy barrier could be attributed to the highly reactive silica deriving from the oxidation of Si,CH3 bonds in the silicone and to the homogeneous dispersion of the nanosized filler inside the preceramic polymer. Furthermore, the possibility of applying plastic shaping processing methods to the mixture of a preceramic polymer and nanosized filler makes this approach particularly valuable, in comparison, for instance, with sol,gel based alternatives. [source]


A Process for Cf/SiC Composites Using Liquid Polymer Infiltration

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 10 2001
Zbigniew S. Rak
A continuous carbon fiber/silicon carbide matrix composite material has been produced by a low-cost process. In this process the space in a two-dimensional carbon fiber preform is filled with a SiC powder by a pressure infiltration method. High particle packing densities are achieved within the fiber preform in this way. The compact body is heat-treated at 400°C to form a porous framework, which is then infiltrated with a liquid preceramic polymer, CerasetTM SN. Subsequently the infiltrated polymer is pyrolyzed in argon at 1300°C. The microstructure of the final composite is characterized, and mechanical properties of these composites are discussed. [source]


Polymer-Derived Ceramics: 40 Years of Research and Innovation in Advanced Ceramics

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 7 2010
Paolo Colombo
Preceramic polymers were proposed over 30 years ago as precursors for the fabrication of mainly Si-based advanced ceramics, generally denoted as polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs). The polymer to ceramic transformation process enabled significant technological breakthroughs in ceramic science and technology, such as the development of ceramic fibers, coatings, or ceramics stable at ultrahigh temperatures (up to 2000°C) with respect to decomposition, crystallization, phase separation, and creep. In recent years, several important advances have been achieved such as the discovery of a variety of functional properties associated with PDCs. Moreover, novel insights into their structure at the nanoscale level have contributed to the fundamental understanding of the various useful and unique features of PDCs related to their high chemical durability or high creep resistance or semiconducting behavior. From the processing point of view, preceramic polymers have been used as reactive binders to produce technical ceramics, they have been manipulated to allow for the formation of ordered pores in the meso-range, they have been tested for joining advanced ceramic components, and have been processed into bulk or macroporous components. Consequently, possible fields of applications of PDCs have been extended significantly by the recent research and development activities. Several key engineering fields suitable for application of PDCs include high-temperature-resistant materials (energy materials, automotive, aerospace, etc.), hard materials, chemical engineering (catalyst support, food- and biotechnology, etc.), or functional materials in electrical engineering as well as in micro/nanoelectronics. The science and technological development of PDCs are highly interdisciplinary, at the forefront of micro- and nanoscience and technology, with expertise provided by chemists, physicists, mineralogists, and materials scientists, and engineers. Moreover, several specialized industries have already commercialized components based on PDCs, and the production and availability of the precursors used has dramatically increased over the past few years. In this feature article, we highlight the following scientific issues related to advanced PDCs research: (1) General synthesis procedures to produce silicon-based preceramic polymers. (2) Special microstructural features of PDCs. (3) Unusual materials properties of PDCs, that are related to their unique nanosized microstructure that makes preceramic polymers of great and topical interest to researchers across a wide spectrum of disciplines. (4) Processing strategies to fabricate ceramic components from preceramic polymers. (5) Discussion and presentation of several examples of possible real-life applications that take advantage of the special characteristics of preceramic polymers. Note: In the past, a wide range of specialized international symposia have been devoted to PDCs, in particular organized by the American Ceramic Society, the European Materials Society, and the Materials Research Society. Most of the reviews available on PDCs are either not up to date or deal with only a subset of preceramic polymers and ceramics (e.g., silazanes to produce SiCN-based ceramics). Thus, this review is focused on a large number of novel data and developments, and contains materials from the literature but also from sources that are not widely available. [source]


Role of Redistribution Reactions in the Polymer Route to Silicon,Carbon,Oxygen Ceramics

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 5 2002
P. Hubert Mutin
Redistribution reactions are used in the synthesis of several preceramic polymers. Moreover, redistributions play a major role in the pyrolysis of these precursors. Examples of thermal redistributions involving the exchange of Si,O/Si,X bonds (X = O, H, C, ,) in polysiloxanes, precursors to silicon,oxygen,carbon ceramics, are given. Redistributions account for the escape of volatile organosilicon compounds, decreasing the yield and modifying the composition of the final ceramic. Moreover, they deeply modify the environment of Si atoms in the residue. At ,900°C, Si,O/Si,C redistributions have reached equilibrium, leading to a random, entropically controlled distribution of sites. At higher temperatures, redistribution equilibria are displaced by the crystallization of SiC. Thus, the structure of the silicon oxycarbide phase (environment of Si atoms) is dependent on the O/Si ratio of the glass and the pyrolysis temperature, but is not directly dependent on the structure of the precursor. [source]