Biomimetic synthesis of ceramics and ceramic composites

The processing of biomorphous ceramics and ceramic composites represents ail advanced concept for manufacturing of porous or dense ceramic materials with microcellular morphologies. The cellular anatomy of naturally grown plants as well as there derived products such as cellulose fibre felts, cloth, papers and cardboard provide ail attractive template for the design of materials with hierarchically ordered structures on different length scales that cannot be processed by conventional processing technologies. The inherent cellular and open porous morphology of the bioorganic materials is easily accessible for liquid or gaseous infiltrants of different compositions. Using high-temperature reaction processes, the bioorganic structures can be converted into oxide or carbide-based biomorphous ceramics within reasonable time, maintaining the morphological features of the native template. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.