Shaped Ceramics with Tunable Magnetic Properties from Metal-Containing Polymers
Mark J. MacLachlan,
1
Madlen Ginzburg,
1
Neil Coombs,
1
Thomas W. Coyle,
2
Nandyala P. Raju,
3
John E. Greedan,
3
Geoffrey A. Ozin,
1*
Ian Manners
1*
A shaped, magnetic ceramic was obtained from a
metal-containing polymer network, which was synthesized by thermal
polymerization of a metal-containing organosilicon monomer. Pyrolysis
of a cylinder, shape, or film of the metal-containing polymer precursor
produced a low-density magnetic ceramic replica in high yield. The
magnetic properties of the shaped ceramic could be tuned between a
superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic state by controlling the pyrolysis
conditions, with the particular state dependent on the size of iron
nanoclusters homogeneously dispersed throughout the
carbosilane-graphitic-silicon nitride matrix. These results indicate
that cross-linked metal-containing polymers may be useful precursors to
ceramic monoliths with tailorable magnetic properties.
1 Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
2 Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science and
Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of
Toronto, 184 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E4, Canada.
3 Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster
University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
gozin{at}alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca;
imanners{at}alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
