Development of large diameter amorphous ceramic SiCN fibres from selective chemical cross-linked oligosilazanes

Lightweight materials are very attractive to increase the energy efficiency caused by weight reduction in the aerospace industry. Nowadays, the application of these advanced materials starts to go well beyond the aerospace industry, particularly to the automotive and wind energy industries, as global trends toward CO2 reduction and resource efficiency have significantly increased. According to a recent report of McKinsey & Company [HEU12], the use of lightweight materials will significantly grow across industries, being currently about 80% of the total material share in the aerospace industry and expected to increase from 30 to 80 % by 2030 in the automotive industry. While the main drivers for the use and development of lightweight materials in the aerospace industry are the need to reduce fuel consumption as related costs and the need to increase passenger/cargo load per flight, the automobile industry is runned to the CO2 emissions regulation. Last, but not least, the wind industry requires extreme lightweight materials in the long rotating blades, which has to resist high stresses.