From click to ceramic: An efficient way to generate multielement Si/Zr/C clicked-polymer-derived ceramics (cPDC)

Abstract

Clicked-polymer-derived ceramics (cPDC) were elaborated using no chromatographic purification steps. Starting from suitable monomers, three original silicon-contained clicked-polymers P1–3 were synthesized in good yields, using the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). Then, the thermal behaviors of the organic materials were investigated until 1400°C. Thanks to XRD analysis, an α-SiC was unusually observed for materials obtained from P1 and P2. Thereby, pyrolysis of polymer P3 led to a composite α-SiC–ZrC. The free carbon, initially observed after pyrolytic treatment of P1 and P2, was removed in the final material C3. A structure for P3 was then proposed on the evidence of IR and NMR spectroscopic data. Hence, the polymer-derived ceramics route was synergistically associated to the CuAAC to generate high performance materials.