High-temperature ceramics are required for advanced defense applications, like components for turbine engines and high-speed flight. Normally, low molar mass, ill-defined preceramic polymers are used for the fabrication of ceramic matrix composites, but recently preceramic polymers grafted to inorganic solid cores have shown promise as a next generation ceramic precursor. Herein, we present the synthesis and characterization of preceramic polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) assembled via non-covalent interactions for applications in manufacturing high-temperature ceramics. First, PGNPs were prepared via a grafting-to approach using pyridine-functionalized preceramic polymers (two different backbones) to coordinate zirconium ions which were also coordinated by pyridine-functionalized silica particles. These metal-coordinated PGNPs were rheologically characterized and found to have formed gel-networks with metal loading dependent properties. As a further demonstration of the non-covalent grafting-to approach, efforts toward the synthesis of preceramic nanoscale ionic materials (PNIMs) will be presented. Sulfonate-functionalized silica particles have been prepared and were envisaged to serve as a multivalent anionic counter ion for cation-functionalized preceramic polymers currently under development. The synthesis and preparation of these hybrids will be also presented as part of an exhibition of the non-covalent strategy for preparing preceramic materials.

Leveraging non-covalent interactions for preceramic polymer-grafted nanoparticles

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