Silicon nitride fibers from polycarbosilanes

SiC fibers were produced using polycarbosilanes by Yajima et al. in 1975 [1,2]. Besides SiC fibers, Si-Ti-C-O fibers prepared from a polytitanocarbosi-lane have been obtained by adding a titanium tetrabutoxide to polycarbosilane or polysilane [3]. SiC fibers (Nicalon) and Si-Ti-C-O fibers (Tyranno) are manufactured on an industrial scale. Colorless silicon oxynitride fibers and silicon nitride fibers [4] have been obtained by the nitridation of polycarbosilanes in the author s laboratory. Polymers used for ceramic precursor and the resulting ceramic fibers are listed in Table 1. 

S. Kamimura, K. Watanabe, N. Kasai, T. Seguchl and K. Okamura, Silicon nitride fiber synthesis from polycarbosilane fiber by radiation curing and pyrolysis under ammonia, Ceram. Transactions, 58, 281-286 (1995). 

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