Vat photopolymerization of polymer-derived SiC ceramic with triply period minimal surface structure for hydrogen production

Ceramic-based porous structures have received considerable attention due to their excellent thermal properties. However, the disordered pore arrangement inside traditional porous ceramics would significantly weaken their structural performance. This paper presents the vat photopolymerization of polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) to fabricate porous SiC ceramic components with triply period minimal surface (TPMS), which have a regular pore arrangement and can be used as catalyst supports for hydrogen production. The photosensitive preceramic polymer resin with low viscosity was prepared by directly dissolving polycarbosilane (PCS) into photosensitive resin and organic solvent. Five different types of TPMS structures, including the P, G, D, I-WP, and F-RD surfaces, were designed and printed using the optimized preceramic polymer resin. After the ceramization process, the TPMS structural SiC ceramic components with a high porosity of 80% were successfully obtained, exhibiting precise microstructures and excellent mechanical properties. Furthermore, the fabricated TPMS structural SiC components were used as catalyst supports in a methanol steam reforming (MSR) microreactor, and the experimental results show that the TPMS structural catalyst support is a great choice for hydrogen production. Notably, catalyst supports with P, G, and D surfaces showed excellent flow performance with different flow paths. The D surface, in particular, exhibited the best reaction performance with the hydrogen production and conversion rate of 82.62 ml/min and 78.7%.