Microstructure transmissibility in preparing SiC ceramics from natural wood

A new technique has been developed to prepare SiC ceramic products from natural wood by C–Si reaction at high temperature. Three typical types of natural wood, i.e. pine, birch and bamboo, were selected as the raw materials. XRD analysis indicated that the SiC ceramic prepared by this technique was multi-phase solid, composed of β-SiC and free-silicon. The cell–pipe–fiber structure of the original wood can be transmitted to the final SiC ceramics. The typical structure (cell, pipe or fiber) is in the scale 20–200 μm, and so the arrangement of small SiC grains in the original location of carbon induces observable microstructure transmissibility. The experiment results showed that this technique is a suitable new method to prepare ceramics with a bionics structure.