Organosilicon polymer-derived ceramics: An overview

Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) strategy shows a great deal of advantages for the fabrication of advanced ceramics. Organosilicon polymers facilitate the shaping process and different silicon-based ceramics with controllable components can be fabricated by modifying organosilicon polymers or adding fillers. It is worth noting that silicate ceramics can also be fabricated from organosilicon polymers by the introduction of active fillers, which could react with the produced silica during pyrolysis. The organosilicon polymer-derived ceramics show many unique properties, which have attracted many attentions in various fields. This review summarizes the typical organosilicon polymers and the processing of organosilicon polymers to fabricate silicon-based ceramics, especially highlights the three-dimensional (3D) printing technique for shaping the organosilicon polymer-derived ceramics, which makes the possibility to fabricate silicon-based ceramics with complex structure. More importantly, the recent studies on fabricating typical non-oxide and silicate ceramics derived from organosilicon polymers and their biomedical applications are highlighted.