High-temperature elasticity of fibrous ceramics with a bird's nest structure

New fibrous ceramics with polycrystalline mullite fibers as the matrix and silica–boron sols as the high temperature binder, which was inspired by the bird's nest structure in nature, were synthesized. The most important structure characteristic of this fibrous material is that the silica–boron binder only fixed the fibers at the crossing points rather than filled the pores among the fibers. The elastic behavior was investigated, both at room temperature and elevated temperature. Compared to conventional ceramic matrix composites, the samples show a much higher degree of elasticity because of the bending of the fibers. The rebound resilience decreased slowly with the increase of the temperature, but it still remained 86% of that at ambient temperature at 1000 °C. The sample exhibits good elasticity performance, relatively high strength (2.25 MPa) and high porosity (83%) indicating it is a potential high-temperature seal material.