title: Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) for the preparation of biomorphic SiC ceramics derived from paper.
abstract: Chemical Vapor Infiltration of biological structures such as paper is used here to produce biomorphic SiC ceramics with high temperature resistance. The biological substrate materials are infiltrated with tetramethylsilane (TMS) at atmospheric pressure and elevated temperatures of 790 degrees C. A simple tube furnace (hot-wall reactor) is used for the infiltration process. As result, porous SiC-ceramics are grown which are around 20% smaller and 70% lighter than the initial substrates. This can be explained by the pyrolytic reaction of the substrates while heating them up to 790 degrees C, which is necessary for the infiltration process. Nevertheless, besides the shrinking of the substrates the geometrical form remains nearly unchanged. The resulting materials were heated up to 1000 degrees C in oxygen atmosphere in order to analyze their resistance against oxidation. After this treatment, all of them were still mechanically stable and of unchanged shape while a further mass loss was observed. This confirms the high temperature stability of the prepared materials.
authors.affiliation: Thermodynamics and CeNIDE, IVG, Mechanical Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Duisburg, Lotharstr 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pflitsch
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Curdts
authors.forename: Burak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Atakan