Synthesis of Non-oxide Porous Ceramics Using Random Copolymers as Precursors

In this paper, we reported a novel method for synthesis of non-oxide porous ceramics by using random copolymers as precursors. A silazane oligomer and styrene monomer were used as starting materials, which were copolymerized at 120 °C to form random polysilazane–polystyrene copolymers. The copolymers were then pyrolyzed at 500 °C to obtain porous ceramics by completely decomposing polystyrene (PS) and converting polysilazane (PSZ) into non-oxide Si–C–N ceramics. The obtained material contained a bi-model pore-structure consisting of both micro-sized and nano-sized pores with very high surface area of more than 500 m2/g. We also demonstrated that the pore structure and surface area of the materials can be tailored by changing the ratio of the two blocks. Current results suggest a promising simple method for making multi-scaled porous non-oxide materials.