| Abstract Scope |
Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) are an exciting class of high temperature and harsh environment materials. This Friedberg lecture will mainly cover our research work related to SiOC and SiON systems. In our study, MXene-containing SiOC composites with high electrical conductivity were fabricated. Flash pyrolysis was first developed to produce polymer derived SiOC nanocomposites. From the fundamental science point of view, a Gibbs free energy minimization method was developed to predict the phase contents. We also advanced a ReaxFF method to simulate polymer derived SiOC ceramics and understand the effects of polymer precursors on the composition, atomic structure evolution, bonding, and radial distribution function of the resulting ceramics. SiON coatings have been made by spin coating and shown to be an effective layer on steel in a chlorine environment and high temperature oxidizing environments. A multi-layer SiOCN ceramic coating with exceptional compliance has been developed. Overall, the tailorable composition control as well as processability ease of the polymer precursors make PDCs an exciting class of materials unobtainable or difficult through conventional ceramic processing techniques. |