Nano-structured metal-containing polymer precursors for high temperature non-oxide ceramics and ceramic fibers—syntheses, pyrolyses and properties

Nano-structured metal-containing ceramic polymer precursors have a potential for progress in the field of polymer-derived ceramics. In this paper the synthesis and characterization of nano-metallopolycarbosilanes (nMPCS) and their transformation into ceramic materials are reported. The formation of metal nano-particles via fast thermolysis of metal- containing compounds in polymer solution or melt previously developed by the authors was applied to preceramic polymers. Tetrabenzyltitanium, tetrabenzylzirconium, bis(cyclopentadienil)dichloride-titanium and zirconium as well as tetrachlorides of these metals and tetrakis(diethylamino)zirconium were used for the introduction of metal nano-particles. The products were characterized by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential-thermal analysis (DTA), gel-penetration (GP)-chromatography, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and other special analyses. The results of these studies may be useful for the fabrication of non-oxide ceramic fibers, interphase coatings and high temperature ceramic matrix composite (HT-CMC) matrices. Cp2ZrCl2 and Zr[N(C2H5)2]4 provided nano-particles with diameters of 2–4 nm and turned out to be the most suitable compounds for the preparation of ceramic matrices. Besides, they open a new way of oxygen-free curing. Coreless fibers were obtained from nZrPCS with up to 3 mass% of metal. Future investigations will be focused on optimization of the oligocarbosilanes used as starting materials and the development of less reactive polycarbosilane (PCS)–metal-containing compound (MCC) systems.