Chemical modification of preceramic polymers: Their reactions with transition metal complexes and transition metal powders

Conclusions This research has demonstrated that a variety of chemistries can be carried out with preceramic polymers that in general are characterized by the presence of an abundance of reactive functional groups. Such chemistries can serve to upgrade a given preceramic polymer by catalytic or stoichiometric processes; they can be used to from new and useful hybrid polymers from the original preceramic polymer, as shown in the present work and also in some of our previously published work; they can, by their pyrolysis in the presence of metal powders, act as chemical reagents that deliver the elements of interest for reaction with the metal to give useful ceramics. Thus the preparation of a preceramic polymer is not the end of the chemistry in the monomer-to-polymer-to-ceramic conversion, but rather it presents many possibilities for further chemistry.