Composite Ceramics and Ceramic Particles and Method for Producing Ceramic Particles and Bulk Ceramic Particles

A method of making a fully-dense, spherical polymer derived ceramic (PDC) particle, wherein the particle material is derived from at least one of a binary PDC system, a ternary PDC system or a quaternary PDC system formed in an emulsion process for producing bulk ceramic components from partially cured polymer ceramic precursor resin droplets comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a liquid pre-catalyzed polymeric ceramic precursor resin
• b) introducing the precursor resin to a continuous phase liquid emulsion,
• c) exposing the continuous phase liquid emulsion containing the precursor resin to an energy source,
• d) forming a plurality of partially cured polymer resin globules;
• e) mixing a plurality of powders with the continuous phase liquid emulsion containing the partially cured polymer resin globules;
• f) coating the partially cured polymer resin globules with powder particles,
• g) separating the coated partially cured polymer from the continuous phase liquid emulsion;
• and
• h) pyrolyzing the coated partially cured polymer to produce a plurality of polymer derived ceramic (PDC) particles.

A nano-sized polymer derived ceramic (PDC) particle, wherein the particle material is derived from at least one of a binary PDC system, a ternary PDC system or a quaternary PDC system formed in a process for producing bulk ceramic components from partially cured polymer ceramic precursor resin droplets comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a liquid pre-catalyzed polymeric ceramic precursor resin;
• b) introducing the precursor resin to a continuous phase liquid emulsion;
• c) exposing the continuous phase liquid emulsion containing the precursor resin to an energy source;
• d) forming a plurality of partially cured polymer resin globules;
• e) shaping the partially-cured polymer resin globules into a green body;
• f) cryogenically freezing the green body;
• g) pulverizing the frozen green body in a frozen state;
• h) milling the frozen green body into particles less than one micron in diameter;
• i) pyrolyze the milled frozen green body particles to form nano-scale ceramic particles.