Atomic-Scale Structure of Polymer-Route Si-C-O Fibers Observed by Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Diffraction

The atomic scale structure of amorphous Si-C-O ceramics fibers produced from the pyrolysis of a polycarbosilane precursor has been investigated by X-ray diffraction using high-energy synchrotron radiation at SPring-8. First peak in the total correlation function T(r) of the amorphous and the heat-treated fibers is analyzed to consist of two contributions: Si-C (1.89 Å) and Si-O (1.61 Å) bonds. The coordination number of C and/or O around Si is about four. This suggests that the Si-C-O fibers basically have a network structure that consists of two tetrahedral units: SiC4 and SiO4. The local chemical and structural orders vary continuously in the materials from the disordered network structure of SiC4 and SiO4 tetrahedra (mixture of amorphous SiC and SiO2) to nanocrystals of SiC and SiO2, through the ternary Si-C-O solid solution which is believed to have an intermediate structure between the amorphous and crystalline states.