Oxycarbide glass

Oxycarbide glass, also referred to as silicon oxycarbide, is a type of glass that contains oxygen and carbon in addition to silicon dioxide. It is created by substituting some oxygen atoms with carbon atoms. This glass may contain particles of amorphous carbon, and silicon carbide. SiOC materials of varying stoichiometery are attractive owing to their generally high density, hardness and high service temperatures. Through diverse forming techniques high performance parts in complex shapes can be achieved. Unlike pure SiC, the versatile stoichiometry of SiOC offers further avenues to tune physical properties through appropriate selection of processing parameters.

Amorphous silicon oxycarbide can form as the pyrolysis product of preceramic polymers including polycarbosilane. Such materials are of increasing interest towards the additive manufacturing of ceramic parts using stereolithography type processes. When formed from a polymer precursor, silicon oxycarbide constitutes an important member of the class of materials known as polymer derived ceramics

The microstructure of SiOC can be altered by composition with other phases; In a while micro, meso, and macro-porosities can be introduced by the fabricated composites. The array of porosities is engineered for specific aims, e.g. use as membrane.