Synthetic Routes to Oligosilazanes and Polysilazanes

Organometallic polymer precursors offer the potential to manufacture shaped forms of advanced ceramic materials using low temperature processing. Polysilazanes, compounds containing Si-N bonds in the polymer backbone, can be used as precursors to silicon nitride containing ceramic materials. This chapter provides an overview of the general synthetic approaches to polysilazanes with particular emphasis on the synthesis of preceramic polysilazanes. The latter part of the chapter focusses on catalyzed dehydrocoupling reactions as a route to polysilazanes.