Synthesis of spherical non-oxide silicon carbonitride ceramic particles

In this article, we report a simple technique for synthesizing spherical non-oxide silicon carbonitride ceramic particles from a polysilazane precursor. In this technique, the spherical particles of the polysilazane precursor were synthesized first via a precipitation polymerization process and then converted to ceramic particles by pyrolysis. The resultant ceramic particles exhibited a close-to-perfect spherical shape and a narrow size distribution around 430 nm. The precipitation and pyrolysis processes were characterized using SEM, TEM, FTIR, and XRD to illustrate the formation mechanisms of the ceramic particles.