“String and bead” model of copper modified polycarbosilane: synthesis and applications

The synthesis of metal modified polycarbosilanes is currently an area of significant activity. These polymers can be processed to advanced materials such as ceramic fibers, coatings, or ceramics stable at ultra-high temperatures (up to 2000 °C). Exact structures of these advanced polymers are still not clearly understood. Herein, we report the successful synthesis, structure elucidation and catalytic application of copper modified polycarbosilane. A highly cross-linked “string and bead” structure is proposed for copper modified polycarbosilane synthesized in this study, where the beads corresponds to the evenly distributed copper particles and the string to the interconnected PCS matrix. The effect of Cu-PCS on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate was investigated by means of thermogravimetry. The high-temperature decomposition of ammonium perchlorate was decreased by 28 °C by the addition of 0.5 wt% of Cu-PCS. The model structure of metal-modified polycarbosilane proposed in this study can be viewed as an ideal heterogeneous catalyst system, and therefore the present study can be used as a pilot for future projects to produce efficient heterogeneous catalysts. Graphical abstract