Electric conductivity and microstructure evolution of polymer-derived SiAlCO ceramics

The electric conductivity and microstructure of polymer-derived SiAlCO ceramic were studied. The conductivity increased drastically with increasing pyrolysis temperature and exhibited a typical Arrhenius dependence on pyrolysis temperature with the activation energy of ~7.15 eV. The microstructure was analyzed by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and XPS. Unlike previous reported PDCs, the increase in the conductivity of the SiAlCO cannot be explained by the structural changes of the free carbon phase. It is speculated that the increased conductivity is possibly due to the redistribution of C–O bonds within the free carbon phase.