A novel processing approach for free-standing porous non-oxide ceramic supports from polycarbosilane and polysilazane precursors

In this contribution, a low-pressure/low-temperature casting technique for the preparation of novel free-standing macrocellular polymer-derived ceramic support structures is presented. Preceramic polymers (polycarbosilane and poly(vinyl)silazane) are combined with sacrificial porogens (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene microbeads) to yield porous ceramic materials in the Si-C or Si-C-N systems, exhibiting well-defined pore structures after thermal conversion. The planar-disc-type specimens were found to exhibit biaxial flexural strengths of up to 60 MPa. In combination with their observed permeability characteristics, the prepared structures were found to be suitable for potential applications in filtration, catalysis, or membrane science. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).