Ceramics for Sustainable Energy Technologies with a Focus on Polymer-Derived Ceramics - Novel Combustion Concepts for Sustainable Energy Development - page 499

from poly(carbosilane) was first published in 1975 (Yajima et al. 1975 ), and the

fibers have since been commercialized by the Nippon Carbon Company under the
trade name Nicalon

. This topic is elaborated further in Sect. 2.1 .
Liquid preceramic polymers are ideal for coating via dipping, spinning, painting,
or spraying. Both

®

filled coatings have been used for applications
ranging from environmental protection to wear resistance (Torrey et al. 2006 ;
Torrey and Bordia 2008a , b ; Wang et al. 2014 ;G

filled and un

nthner et al. 2011 ; Wang et al.
2011 ). Joining and sealing of ceramic materials has also been achieved using
preceramic polymers (Colombo et al. 2000 ; Lewinsohn et al. 2005 ). This topic is
discussed below in Sect. 2.2 .
An abundance of research has been published recently regarding preceramic
polymer foams as potential materials for ceramic

ü

filters, catalytic supports, thermal

insulation, and lightweight structural reinforcements (Schef fl er et al. 2005a ,

Schef er and Colombo 2005 ; Zeschky et al. 2003 ). Because of their natural

foaming ability upon cross-linking, many preceramic polymers are suitable for
direct foaming yielding macroporous components. Other polymers can be used with
sacri

fl

cial templates to create microporous foams. Preceramic polymers also offer
the potential for production of lightweight metal-ceramic composites. This topic is
further elaborated in Sect. 2.3 .
Precursors can be substituted for traditional organic binders during processing,
and instead of burning off and creating porosity, preceramic polymer binders will
instead convert to a ceramic. This aids in the creation of higher-density parts as well
as increases the purity of the

final ceramic by reducing the amount of organic
contaminants in the green bodies. Preceramic polymers are quite attractive for their
potential as matrix materials in ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). They offer the
ease of polymeric in

ltration with the high temperature stability and chemical
resistance of ceramics (Seifert et al. 2014 ; Konegger et al. 2013a , b ).
In addition to the processes mentioned above, several other polymer processing
approaches such as injection molding or extrusion can be used. Several innovations
have been proposed in this area to further improve the processing and micro-
structures. One example is a supercritical CO 2 blowing process with continuous
extrusion of preceramic polymers, yielding rectangular, round, or hollow pro les

with a gradient porous distribution (Wolff et al. 2012 ).

2 Precursor or Polymer-Derived Ceramics for Sustainable
Applications

Here, we present illustrative examples of the development of polymer-derived
ceramics for sustainable applications in three forms

—

bers, coatings, and porous
ceramics. We primarily highlight the research conducted by our research groups.
We emphasize that this is not a comprehensive review of this approach to make
ceramics.