Preparation of porous Al2O3 ceramics with in situ formed C-nanowires derived form silicone resin

Porous Al2O3 ceramics with different SiC contents were successfully prepared through preceramic polymer process following by sintering at 1500 °C at N2 atmosphere, where ball-shape Al2O3 powders and preceramic polymer silicone resin were used as the matrix and the binder. According to the SEM, XRD and elemental analysis, it was found that C-nanowires were formed in the gap between grains in sintered samples, which was formed by the organic-inorganic transformation of silicone resin at N2 atmosphere. The existence of SiC was beneficial for the formation of C-nanowires. With the increase of SiC content in the samples, the porosity had no evidently change, however, the bending strength increased from 23 MPa to 50 MPa.