'Microstructure analysis of morph-genetic SiC/C ceramics from wood

In the present work, wood structures were changed to carbon preforms and converted into morph-genetic SiC/C ceramics through methyl organic silicone resin vacuum-infiltration and high-temperature reaction. The thermal decomposition of methyl organic silicone resin in the fabrication process was studied, and the microstructure and the pore-size distribution characteristic of morph-genetic porous SiC/C ceramics were also investigated. The current results show that the methyl organic silicone resin in the carbon preform decomposed to the silicon compounds between 400 and 650°. It was reacted with the carbon preform to form crystalline SiC after 1400° sintering. The resulting morph-genetic SiC/C ceramics were shown to retain the complex morphology of the original template structure. New pore-size distribution peaks in the range of 10 to 50 nm appeared in the morph-genetic ceramic due to the appearance of some sunk pores in the surface of the cell wall. This led to an increase of the specific surface area from 7.19m 2 /g to 16.29m 2 /g in the final product.