Synthesis of a porous SiC material from polycarbosilane by direct foaming and radiation curing

Idesaki, Akira; Sugimoto, Masaki; Yoshikawa, Masahito

A macroporous SiC material was synthesized from polycarbosilane (PCS) by direct foaming and radiation curing. A mixture of PCS and biurea, a blowing agent, was heat-treated in Ar to obtain foamed PCS body, irradiated by -rays to fix the shaped body and finally pyrolyzed at 1000C in Ar. In this work, effects of foaming temperature (280-320C) and biurea content (0-1wt%) on the properties of obtained porous SiC material such as average cell size, porosity, compressive strength were investigated. It was found that the average cell size increased as foaming temperature and/or biurea content increased. Corresponding to increasing in average cell size, total porosity and open porosity increased and bulk density, closed porosity and compressive strength decreased. In case of the foaming at 280C with biurea content of 1wt%, obtained porous SiC material showed average cell size of 0.5 mm, total porosity of 74% and compressive strength of 3.2 MPa.