High Yield SiC Preceramic Polymers

In this Air Force Phase I SBIR program, MATECH proposes to modify a commercially available preceramic polymer (PCP) to silicon carbide (SiC), SMP-10 from Starfire Systems, in order to dramatically increase its ceramic yield and lower its crystallization temperature (by ~200 degrees centigrade). The polymer-impregnation-pyrolysis (PIP) process for manufacturing ceramic matrix composites is attractive due to its low capitalization costs compared with other CMC densification processes. Unfortunately, the high number of PIP cycles makes CMC manufacturing, nonetheless, quite expensive. Currently, commercially available PCPs require many polymer-impregnation-pyrolysis (PIP) cycles to densify ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), typically greater than 10 PIP cycles. Moreover, inducing crystallization of beta-SiC matrix requires high temperatures that can be damaging to commercially available SiC ceramic fibers. MATECH proposes to address these challenges by a “two-pronged approach� of chemically modifying the preceramic polymer combined with an improved CMC PIP manufacturing processing. MATECH is uniquely qualified for this undertaking due to its decades of experience designing and synthesizing preceramic polymers to high temperature and ultra-high-temperature ceramic fibers and matrices, such as SiC, SiNC, SiOC, ZrC, HfC, TaC, and YAG.