SAXS characterization of nanochannels in polymer-derived SiC fibers

In the preparation of polymer-derived SiC fibers, nanochannels are believed to be formed in the early pyrolysis stages due to loss of large volumes of pyrolysis gases. In this paper, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was applied to the characterization and calculation of nanochannels in partially-pyrolyzed SiC fibers. The SAXS measurements showed that nanochannels with a radius of 1.0-20 nm were formed for fibers heat-treated at 973K and 1173K. But their distributions were not continuous and at lower part of the distribution, a peak value was observed at about 1.2nm. This means if the nanochannels are finely controlled, the partially-pyrolyzed SiC fibers have great potential application in the fields of hydrogen storage, gas separation, and so on.