New mouldable liquid polymer turns into ceramic upon heating

Engineers at Kansas State University in the USA have patented a liquid polymer that can turn into solid ceramic.

In its liquid form the polymer has the viscosity and clarity of water, but once heated will become a solid black glass-like ceramic.

It will have applications for ceramic textiles, improved jet engine blades, 3-D printed ceramics and batteries. The material combines silicon, boron, carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen.

Gurpreet Singh, the polymers inventor, said: “This polymer is a useful material that really works. Of all the materials that we have researched in the last five years, this material is the most promising. Now we can think of using ceramics where you could never even imagine.”

He added: “We have created a liquid that remains a liquid at room temperature and has a longer shelf life than other SiBNC polymers. But when you heat our polymer, it undergoes a liquid to solid transition. This transparent liquid polymer can transform into a very black, glasslike ceramic.”

The liquid polymer is mouldable, resistant to high temperatures and resistant to all light, including UV and infrared and has adaptable conductivity.  

The research was supported by the USA’s National Institute of Standards and Technology radiometry team and the National Science Foundation.