Abstract

In this work, the formation of transient microporosity during the polymer-to-ceramic conversion in polymer-derived ceramics was studied using a commercially available poly(vinyl)silazane precursor which was modified with divinylbenzene (DVB) as linker molecule during crosslinking. After pyrolysis treatments between 400 and 700 °C, the resulting materials not only showed distinct changes in elemental composition and structural features upon introduction of the linker molecule, but also a shift in micropore size, e.g. shifting from 0.84 nm to 0.70 nm after pyrolysis at 600 °C. Due to hindrance of transamination reactions in the low-temperature region, the nitrogen content in linker-containing samples was significantly higher, leading to a different composition of micropore-forming entities and, in case of the system studied, to smaller pores. These findings are a first step towards the clarification of the mechanisms leading to the pore formation in PDCs during pyrolytic conversion, which is essential for their use in prospective applications.

Highlights

  • Since environmental challenges have become more urgent and a central topic of public awareness in the last years, the need for more sustainable, energy-saving processes as well as the use of renewable energy have raised increasing public and industrial interest

  • In combi­ nation with Raman data, these results suggest that carbon clusters in PSZ-DVB materials are already present at temperatures ≤ 600 ◦C

  • A straightforward modification of the initial PSZ precursor network structure was successfully conducted through a hydrosilylation reaction using an overstoichiometric amount of DVB as linker, which was confirmed by elemental analysis as well as IR spectroscopy

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Summary

Introduction

Since environmental challenges have become more urgent and a central topic of public awareness in the last years, the need for more sustainable, energy-saving processes as well as the use of renewable energy have raised increasing public and industrial interest. A particular focus has been set on the development of new and well-tailored sepa­ ration and catalysis processes, accompanied by increasing technological requirements placed on the materials used. Ceramics fulfil these re­ quirements to a great extent, exhibiting superior chemical and hightemperature mechanical properties compared to conventionally used polymers or metals. Porous ceramics are promising candidates for ap­ plications as membrane or catalyst supports, where polymer- or metalbased structures are unsuitable due to the process conditions such as high temperature or harsh chemical environments. In sepa­ ration processes employing porous membranes, it is crucial to have a well-defined pore size in order to guarantee reliable and satisfactory selectivity. For an application in gas separation, the pore size has to be below 2 nm (and - per IUPAC definition – microporous [1]) to move from the low-selectivity Knudsen diffusion regime to micropore diffusion, yielding higher selectivities [2]

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