Preceramic Polymer-Derived SiOC Fibers by Electrospinning

Silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) fibers with different chemical compositions were successfully fabricated by electrospinning a mixture of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and commercially available polymethylsilsesquioxane (MK) or polymethylphenylsilsesquioxane (H44) preceramic polymers, followed by cross-linking and pyrolysis at 1000C in Argon. The influence of the processing procedure (solvent selection, cross-linking catalyst and additives) on the morphology of the produced fibers was investigated. For the MK/isopropanol system, the introduction of 20 vol% N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) enabled to decrease the diameter of the as-spun fibers from 2.7260.12 lm to 1.6560.09 lm. For the H44/DMF systems, beads-free fibers were obtained by adding 50 vol% choloroform. After pyrolysis, the resultant SiOC fibers derived from MK and H44 resins possessed uniform morphology, with an average diameter of 0.9760.07 lm and 1.0760.08 lm, respectively. Due to their different chemical compositions, the MK-derived and H44-derived SiOC ceramic fibers could find different potential applications.