Abstract

The preparation of amorphous inorganic networks in the system Si/B/N/C, starting from molecular single source precursors, results in high performance ceramics with outstanding and unprecedented high temperature and mechanical properties. Different ways of incorporating carbon into the final ceramics are described and new single source precursors presented. The local structure and intermediate range order in these amorphous inorganic networks are studied using conventional multinuclear ¹¹B, ¹³C and ²⁹Si magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR and advanced double resonance techniques such as ²⁹Si-{¹¹B} rotational echo adiabatic passage double resonance (REAPDOR), ¹³C-{¹¹B} REAPDOR or ¹¹B-{²⁹Si} rotational echo double resonance (REDOR) NMR spectroscopy.