Ceramic composite materials and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10214455-B2
Application number	US-201715492628-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2017
Priority date	Apr 21, 2016
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

Provided herein are methods of making composite materials. The methods may include infiltrating a carbon nanoscale fiber network with a ceramic precursor, curing the ceramic precursor, and/or pyrolyzing the ceramic precursor. The infiltrating, curing, and pyrolyzing steps may be repeated one or more times. Composite materials also are provided that include a ceramic material and carbon nanoscale fibers.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method of forming a composite material, the method comprising:
providing a carbon nanoscale fiber network which comprises a plurality of substantially aligned carbon nanoscale fibers;
infiltrating the carbon nanoscale fiber network with a first amount of a liquid ceramic precursor;
curing the first amount of the liquid ceramic precursor to form a cured ceramic precursor; and
pyrolyzing the cured ceramic precursor to form the composite material;
wherein the composite material comprises the carbon nanoscale fibers at a volume fraction of at least 35%.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume fraction of the carbon nanoscale fibers in the composite material is about 40% to about 80%.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical conductivity of the composite material is about 2.0×10 4 S/m to about 3.0×10 4 S/m.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
infiltrating a second amount of the liquid ceramic precursor into the composite material;
curing the second amount of the liquid ceramic precursor to form a second amount of a cured ceramic precursor; and
pyrolyzing the second amount of the cured ceramic precursor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the volume fraction of carbon nanoscale fibers in the composite material is about 50% to about 70%.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the electrical conductivity of the composite material is about 2.0×10 4 S/m to about 2.5×10 4 S/m.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the composite material is (i) flexible, and (ii) has a tensile strength of at least 400 MPa.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing of the carbon nanoscale fiber network comprises:
providing a carbon nanoscale fiber network which comprises a plurality of randomly oriented carbon nanoscale fibers; and
stretching the carbon nanoscale fiber network to substantially align the plurality of randomly oriented carbon nanoscale fibers, wherein the stretching of the carbon nanoscale fiber network imparts the carbon nanoscale fiber network with a stretch ratio of about 10% to about 70%.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the stretch ratio is about 25% to about 45%.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the stretch ratio is about 35%.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of substantially aligned carbon nanoscale fibers comprises single-wall carbon nanotubes, multi-wall carbon nanotubes, or a combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid ceramic precursor comprises a polysilazane, a polysiloxane, a polyborosiloxane, a polyborosilane, a polyborosilazane, a polycarbosiloxane, a polycarbosilane, or a combination thereof.

Assignees

• Univ Florida State Res Found

Inventors

• Xu Chengying

Classifications

• C04B2235/96

  Properties of ceramic products, e.g. mechanical properties such as strength, toughness, wear resistance · CPC title

• C04B2235/5268

  Orientation of the fibers · CPC title

• C04B35/62886

  by wet chemical techniques · CPC title

• C04B2235/5288

  Carbon nanotubes · CPC title

• C04B35/62894

  with more than one coating layer · CPC title