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Nanodomain growth in amorphous Si–C–N
Author(s) -
Gruber W.,
Starykov O.,
Schmidt H.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.200903012
Subject(s) - annealing (glass) , amorphous solid , materials science , isothermal process , crystallography , thermal stability , diffusion , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical physics , chemistry , thermodynamics , composite material , physics , chromatography , organic chemistry
Polymer‐derived amorphous Si–C–N ceramics are phase separated into amorphous nanodomains after thermolysis. These nanodomains are expected to have a crucial importance for the extraordinary high temperature stability of these materials. We investigated nanodomain growth during isothermal annealing at 1400 °C using small angle X‐ray scattering. The as‐thermolyzed sample shows a domain radius of about 5 Å as determined from Guinier plots. During annealing, fast nanodomain growth up to 9 Å is observed for times up to 30 h while for longer annealing times up to 165 h the growth considerably slows down, resulting in a domain size of 11 Å. The experimental data can be fitted by a model based on diffusion controlled domain growth and simultaneous slow‐down of diffusion due to structural relaxation. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)