PROPERTIES OF POROUS SILICON CARBIDE CERAMICS PREPARED BY SOFT TEMPLATING APPROACH

Due to its excellent thermal resistance, mechanical and chemical stability at both room and elevated temperature, silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive material for nuclear fuel cladding or catalyst supports. The control of the porosity during its elaboration is the key deciding factor for such applications. We propose here an innovative method for the elaboration of structured SiC by a soft templating approach (STA). The structure of the final material is defined by the self-assembly of a soluble directing agent (SDA) into a solvent, the former acting as a supramolecular template and the latter having the function of SiC precursor. The solvent and SiC precursor used is the 1,3,5-trisilacyclohexane (TSCH) which after molecular condensation and pyrolysis at 1000 degrees C leads to the desired ceramic. The resulting SiC material exhibits a granular morphology as stacked spherical grains of about 1.7 mu m diameter. Thanks to this study, STA can be considered as a promising method to elaborate porous SiC. Furthermore, thanks to the absence of solvent and to the recyclability of the SDA, STA stands in the framework of sustainable chemistry.