The term preceramic polymer refers to one of various polymeric compounds, which through pyrolysis under appropriate conditions (generally in the absence of oxygen) are converted to ceramic compounds, having high thermal and chemical stability. Ceramics resulting from the pyrolysis of preceramic polymers are known as polymer derived ceramics, or PDCs. Polymer derived ceramics are most often silicon based and include silicon carbide, silicon oxycarbide, silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride. Such PDCs are most commonly amorphous, lacking long-range crystalline order. [1]
The field of preceramic polymers and polymer derived ceramics in general emerged from the requirements in aerospace industries for heat shield materials such as fiber reinforced ceramic / ceramic composite materials. [2] The use of preceramic polymers allows for diverse processing techniques relative to conventional ceramic processing. For example, the spinning of fibres, casting of thin films and the molding of complex shapes. Commonly used preceramic polymers include polycarbosilanes and polysiloxanes, which transform through pyrolysis to SiC and SiOC type ceramics respectively. [3]
A low-cost method of creating complex 3D shapes of ceramics components is to use additive manufacturing (AM) in a use a two-step process of first printing the artifact in polymer and then converting it to ceramic using pyrolysis to form polymer derived ceramics (PDCs). [4] This process works with fused filament fabrication (FFF)-based 3-D printing to make fully dense cellular structures, [5] which can be used for scaffolds for bone regeneration that need to be mechanically stable and have a 3D architecture with interconnected pores. [6] Various other 3D printing techniques (e.g., stereolithography, digital light processing, and two-photon polymerization) that are compatible with this strategy have so far been widely investigated. [7] For example, through photopolymerization methods, preceramic polymers can be used in stereolithography approaches, enabling the additive manufacturing of complex shaped ceramic objects. In such methods, by means of irradiation-driven cross-linking, liquid preceramic polymers transform into rigid thermoset polymers that preserve their shape through the following polymer-to-ceramic transformation that takes place in pyrolysis. In this transformation, polymers transform into glassy ceramic products. [1]
In polymer chemistry, polymerization, or polymerisation, is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many forms of polymerization and different systems exist to categorize them.
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer made up of siloxane (−R2Si−O−SiR2−, where R = organic group). They are typically colorless oils or rubber-like substances. Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking utensils, thermal insulation, and electrical insulation. Some common forms include silicone oil, silicone grease, silicone rubber, silicone resin, and silicone caulk.
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very hard ceramics that are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car brakes, car clutches and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be grown by the Lely method and they can be cut into gems known as synthetic moissanite.
Stereolithography is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts in a layer by layer fashion using photochemical processes by which light causes chemical monomers and oligomers to cross-link together to form polymers. Those polymers then make up the body of a three-dimensional solid. Research in the area had been conducted during the 1970s, but the term was coined by Chuck Hull in 1984 when he applied for a patent on the process, which was granted in 1986. Stereolithography can be used to create prototypes for products in development, medical models, and computer hardware, as well as in many other applications. While stereolithography is fast and can produce almost any design, it can be expensive.
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with the material being added together, typically layer by layer.
Ceramic forming techniques are ways of forming ceramics, which are used to make everything from tableware such as teapots to engineering ceramics such as computer parts. Pottery techniques include the potter's wheel, slip casting and many others.
A photopolymer or light-activated resin is a polymer that changes its properties when exposed to light, often in the ultraviolet or visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These changes are often manifested structurally, for example hardening of the material occurs as a result of cross-linking when exposed to light. An example is shown below depicting a mixture of monomers, oligomers, and photoinitiators that conform into a hardened polymeric material through a process called curing.
Sirris is a non-profit scientific organisation in Belgium. It is an important collaborative centre for the Belgian technology industry. Until 2007, Sirris was known as CRIF-WTCM, which was founded in 1949 by Fabrimetal.
Multiphoton lithography of polymer templates has been known for years by the photonic crystal community. Similar to standard photolithography techniques, structuring is accomplished by illuminating negative-tone or positive-tone photoresists via light of a well-defined wavelength. The fundamental difference is, however, the avoidance of reticles. Instead, two-photon absorption is utilized to induce a dramatic change in the solubility of the resist for appropriate developers.
In materials science, ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are a subgroup of composite materials and a subgroup of ceramics. They consist of ceramic fibers embedded in a ceramic matrix. The fibers and the matrix both can consist of any ceramic material, whereby carbon and carbon fibers can also be regarded as a ceramic material.
Polysilazanes are polymers in which silicon and nitrogen atoms alternate to form the basic backbone. Since each silicon atom is bound to two separate nitrogen atoms and each nitrogen atom to two silicon atoms, both chains and rings of the formula occur. can be hydrogen atoms or organic substituents. If all substituents R are H atoms, the polymer is designated as Perhydropolysilazane, Polyperhydridosilazane, or Inorganic Polysilazane ([H2Si–NH]n). If hydrocarbon substituents are bound to the silicon atoms, the polymers are designated as Organopolysilazanes. Molecularly, polysilazanes are isoelectronic with and close relatives to Polysiloxanes (silicones).
Silicon oxynitride is a ceramic material with the chemical formula SiOxNy. While in amorphous forms its composition can continuously vary between SiO2 (silica) and Si3N4 (silicon nitride), the only known intermediate crystalline phase is Si2N2O. It is found in nature as the rare mineral sinoite in some meteorites and can be synthesized in the laboratory.
Polysilanes are organosilicon compounds with the formula (R2Si)n. They are relatives of traditional organic polymers but their backbones are composed of silicon atoms. They exhibit distinctive optical and electrical properties. They are mainly used as precursors to silicon carbide. The simplest polysilane would be (SiH2)n, which is mainly of theoretical, not practical interest.
Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known as fused deposition modeling, or filament freeform fabrication, is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material. Filament is fed from a large spool through a moving, heated printer extruder head, and is deposited on the growing work. The print head is moved under computer control to define the printed shape. Usually the head moves in two dimensions to deposit one horizontal plane, or layer, at a time; the work or the print head is then moved vertically by a small amount to begin a new layer. The speed of the extruder head may also be controlled to stop and start deposition and form an interrupted plane without stringing or dribbling between sections. "Fused filament fabrication" was coined by the members of the RepRap project to give an acronym (FFF) that would be legally unconstrained in its use.
Projection micro-stereolithography (PµSL) adapts 3D printing technology for micro-fabrication. Digital micro display technology provides dynamic stereolithography masks that work as a virtual photomask. This technique allows for rapid photopolymerization of an entire layer with a flash of UV illumination at micro-scale resolution. The mask can control individual pixel light intensity, allowing control of material properties of the fabricated structure with desired spatial distribution.
A variety of processes, equipment, and materials are used in the production of a three-dimensional object via additive manufacturing. 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing, because the numerous available 3D printing process tend to be additive in nature, with a few key differences in the technologies and the materials used in this process.
Oxycarbide glass, also referred to as silicon oxycarbide, is a type of glass that contains oxygen and carbon in addition to silicon dioxide. It is created by substituting some oxygen atoms with carbon atoms. This glass may contain particles of amorphous carbon, and silicon carbide. SiOC materials of varying stoichiometery are attractive owing to their generally high density, hardness and high service temperatures. Through diverse forming techniques high performance parts in complex shapes can be achieved. Unlike pure SiC, the versatile stoichiometry of SiOC offers further avenues to tune physical properties through appropriate selection of processing parameters.
Polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) are ceramic materials formed by the pyrolysis of preceramic polymers, usually under inert atmosphere.
A nanolattice is a synthetic porous material consisting of nanometer-size members patterned into an ordered lattice structure, like a space frame. The nanolattice is a newly emerged material class that has been rapidly developed over the last decade. Nanolattices redefine the limits of the material property space. Despite being composed of 50-99% of air, nanolattices are very mechanically robust because they take advantage of size-dependent properties that we generally see in nanoparticles, nanowires, and thin films. The most typical mechanical properties of nanolattices include ultrahigh strength, damage tolerance, and high stiffness. Thus, nanolattices have a wide range of applications.
High-area rapid printing (HARP) is a stereolithography (SLA) method that permits the continuous, high-throughput printing of large objects at rapid speeds. This method was introduced in 2019 by the Mirkin Research Group at Northwestern University in order to address drawbacks associated with traditional SLA manufacturing processes. Since the polymerization reactions involved in SLA are highly exothermic processes, the production of objects at high-throughputs is associated with high temperatures that can result in structural defects. HARP addresses this problem by utilizing a solid-liquid slip boundary that cools the resin by withdrawing heat from the system. This allows for large structures to be fabricated quickly without the temperature-associated defects inherent to other SLA processes.