Mesoporous silicon carbide via nanocasting of Ludox® xerogel

Porous SiC with uniformly sized 12 nm and 22 nm spherical mesopores was synthesized from nanocomposites of polycarbosilane (PCS) preceramic polymer and xerogels of Ludox® SiO2 nanoparticles as templates. The influence of PCS type (Mw 800 and 2000 Da), PCS : SiO2 ratio, pyrolysis temperature 1200–1400 °C, and addition of Ni complex to the preceramic composite was studied with respect to the SiC porous morphology, crystalline structure and chemical properties. We found that the pore walls of Ni-free por-SiC are composed of relatively large (20 nm) crystallites embedded inside a poorly crystalline SiC/SiC1+x phase. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature resulted in an increase of the large cryst…