Thoughts on INCERS webinar covering Polymer derived ceramics technology its processing and applications

I thank the Indian ceramics society for hosting a Webinar Series titled "Global Connect: Ceramics & Beyond", featuring monthly online lectures by distinguished global experts in the field of ceramics and materials science. INCERS has provided researchers in the country a great platform to learn from and network with global experts in the field of ceramics.

It was a pleasure for me to attend the 11th lecture in this series on polymer derived ceramics as this is an area that I'm immensely interested in. Dr Günter Motz gave an hour long presentation comprehensively covering critical aspects of PDC technology from synthesis of polymers to their final processing as they are converted into hard ceramics.

PDCs have been applied in the biomedical,aerospace, electronics & coatings industry. Anywhere a combination of high strength,high temperature oxidation resistance & high hardness becomes important PDCs shine.

The key advantage of PDC is that they can be transformed into complex shapes in their polymer state using both solution processing and melt processing techniques allowing these materials to be processed into forms that are difficult to make using powder sintering techniques traditionally used in ceramics.

Because they are polymer derived and not melt processed like glass or metals these materials generally have a residual porosity that can have positive applications, like say its application in membranes , and negative implication in others like its performance as an oxidative barrier coating. Some PDCs like SiOC & SiC are semifunctional as they can have tunable conductivity.

Chlorosilanes are the key chemicals that are used for synthesis of polysiloxanes, polysilazanes and polycarbosilanes that ultimately form silicon oxycarbide, silicon nitride and silicon carbide PDCs.

Strategically PDC technology is important not merely because of PDCs themselves but due to silicon-chlorine compounds that can be used for making ultrahigh purity quartz which is essential in fiber optics.

One major shortcoming of PDC technology is the high cost associated with materials that are manufactured using this technique. However it is possible to make structural parts using biopolymer derived carbon fiber reinforcement and aluminosilicate/quartz matrix composites depending upon service temp. Such materials, while they'd lack the shaping aspect of regular PDC, can be preshaped in fiber stage using weaving and stitching before impregnation with alumino-silica/quartz in nitrogen atmosphere. Essentially enabling a high temperature equivalent of typical epoxy based composites.

Ceramics are highly important bits in the modern technological landscape. I look forward to attending more events organised by INCERD in the future & connecting with leading experts in the field of ceramics.

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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