Hierarchical porous SiOC via freeze casting and self-assembly of block copolymers

Surface area, permeability, and mechanical robustness are particularly crucial for porous ceramics utilized in filter catalyst support applications. Unfortunately, these desirable properties often inversely related to one another via porosity pore size, creating a serious challenge the optimization of materials. To address this challenge, we propose hierarchical composite, fabricated by freeze casting preceramic polymers re-infiltrating with self-assembling polymer/block copolymer blend. The resulting pyrolyzed SiOC solid displayed bimodal size distribution macropores from freeze-cast structure mesopores self-assembled coating. Neither compressive strength, nor Young's modulus composite were compromised mesoporous conformal coatings. With presented structure, better filtration material is expected higher throughput reaction rates. Furthermore, adopting two-step process, can be individually tuned optimize structures desired