A modified polymethylsilane as the precursor for ceramic matrix composites

A novel SiC precursor, A-PMS, was synthesized through a reaction of polymethylsilane (PMS) with SbCl₃, where the Si-H in PMS reacts with Sb-Cl to form Si-Sb bond with HCl evaporated. A-PMS was used as a precursor to prepare C_f/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) via polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) process. It is evident that SbCl₃ plays a very important role in promoting chain crosslinking, transforming of the Si-Si into Si-C bonds and stabilizing PMS from very high oxidation trend of the active Si-H bonds. A-PMS keeps liquid at room temperature that is suitable for the infiltration in the absence of any solvent. A-PMS can be cured into a fully crosslinked structure at 320 °C that leads to a very high ceramic yield up to 91% and an Si/C ratio near 1.12 after pyrolysis. The resulted CMCs samples reached a density of 1.76 g cm⁻³ and a flexural strength of 381 MPa after only four infiltration-pyrolysis cycles.