PRECERAMIC POLYMER ROUTES TO SILICON-CARBIDE

Silicon carbide ceramic fibers derived from organometallic polymer precursors offer exceptional opportunities for the development of high-temperature ceramic and metal matrix composites. The literature concerned with processing SiC ceramic fibers from organometallic polymer precursors is located in diverse journals covering the fields of inorganic chemistry, polymer science, and materials and ceramics science and engineering. This review draws from the literature on precursor synthesis, precursor fiber processing, the pyrolytic transformation of precursor fibers to ceramic fibers, and the properties of the resultant ceramic fibers to provide a broad overview of current SiC precursor technology.