Silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) is a unique polymer-derived ceramic (PDC) containing silicon, oxygen, and carbon atoms in the form of an amorphous network structure. The phase separation of SiOC is determined by polymeric precursors, pyrolysis temperatures, and atmosphere, which results in different compositions and microstructures. Because of its unique properties (high thermal stability, corrosion resistance, among others), SiOC has numerous applications in fields such as additive manufacturing, lithium-ion batteries, and advanced optics. In the SiOC system, SiO2 nanoclusters can be removed through the etching process, to create nanopores for increasing the surface area. By introducing the SiO2-forming filler (perhydropolysilazane) into SiOC, more SiO2 nanodomains with an average size of 1.72 nm were generated for an ultrahigh surface area of ~2100 m2/g material. Meanwhile, the distributions of domain wall thickness and pore distribution can be calculated by our modified model, to further understand the pore formation. The formation of porous SiOC ceramics with ultrahigh surface areas is greatly desired in numerous applications. Transition metal-containing SiOC composites have more functional properties over pure SiOC and receive more attention in different areas. High-temperature resistant TiC/SiOC was successfully synthesized by pyrolysis of polysiloxane (PSO) and titanium isopropoxide at 1200-1400 °C in argon. It had the first reported conductivity of >1000 S/m for TiC/SiOC ceramics. Nickel-containing SiOC magnetoceramics with soft ferromagnetism was fabricated from a base PSO with the addition of nickel 2,4‐pentanedionate. The effect of water vapor on the phase evolution of Ni/SiOC composites was studied at different pyrolysis temperatures, and the formation of nickel silicides was suppressed by the effect of water vapor during the pyrolysis. Our investigation showed the catalysts from transition metals induced the generation of metal silicides, silicon carbide, and turbostratic carbon with the catalytic activity corresponding to Fe > Co > Ni, which agrees with the activation energy calculation. Also, the phase separation of SiOC was proved to be predominant than local carbothermal reduction. In addition to these findings, a novel approach was developed through the Gibbs free energy minimization method to predict the phase content in PDCs with transition metal additives. And this work provides useful guidance to fabricate the transition metal-containing SiOCs with the desired phase content. Last, the state-of-the-art 4D-STEM technique, collaborated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was applied to SiOC ceramics containing amorphous phase. The results showed that 4D-STEM is a valid approach to characterize the nanostructure of the amorphous phase as well as the crystallites. It solves the problem of analyzing SiOC materials at nanoscale due to the disordered atomic arrangement and properties. / Doctor of Philosophy / With the development of science and technology, some novel ceramics have begun to attract attention and become alternatives, such as polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs), due to more advantages over traditional ceramics. Silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) is the main part of the PDC family and possessing good combined thermophysical and mechanical properties. Highly porous SiOC ceramic has broad applications in the fields of catalyst, filters, and thermal insulation. A novel preparation to synthesize SiOC with a specific surface area above 2000 m2/g was investigated. Adding transition metals into the SiOC system can enlarge its application potentials to some extent. The bright spot of nickel-containing SiOC (Ni/SiOC) composites is in the magnetic area. Ni/SiOC composites show soft ferromagnetism and can be used as magnetic sensors, transformers, and so on. In this dissertation, the effect of water vapor on the phase evolution of Ni/SiOC was illustrated. The fabrication of high-temperature-resistant Ti/SiOC composite with large than 1000 S/m conductivity was studied. To further uncover the influence of transition metals on SiOC ceramics, the effects of transition metals on the phase and microstructure evolution of polysiloxane-derived SiOC ceramics were deeply demonstrated. A novel method was even developed to predict the phase content in SiOC ceramic with different transition metals. By working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the nanoscale structures of SiOC ceramic was studied using state-of-the-art 4D-STEM. The findings of this dissertation shed light on more potential applications for SiOC ceramics in the future.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Gurpreet Singh / Molecular precursor derived ceramics (also known as polymer-derived ceramics or PDCs) are high temperature glasses that have been studied for applications involving operation at elevated temperatures. Prepared from controlled thermal degradation of liquid-phase organosilicon precursors, these ceramics offer remarkable engineering properties such as resistance to crystallization up to 1400 °C, semiconductor behavior at high temperatures and intense photoluminescence. These properties are a direct result of their covalent bonded amorphous network and free (-sp2) carbon along with mixed Si/B/C/N/O bonds, which otherwise can not be obtained through conventional ceramic processing techniques. This thesis demonstrates synthesis of a unique core/shell type nanowire structure involving either siliconboroncarbonitride (SiBCN) or siliconoxycarbide (SiOC) as the shell with carbon nanotube (CNT) acting as the core. This was made possible by liquid phase functionalization of CNT surfaces with respective polymeric precursor (e.g., home-made boron-modified polyureamethylvinylsilazane for SiBCN/CNT and commercially obtained polysiloxane for SiOC/CNT), followed by controlled pyrolysis in inert conditions. This unique architecture has several benefits such as high temperature oxidation resistance (provided by the ceramic shell), improved electrical conductivity and mechanical toughness (attributed to the CNT core) that allowed us to explore its use in energy conversion and storage devices. The first application involved use of SiBCN/CNT composite as a high temperature radiation absorbant material for laser thermal calorimeter. SiBCN/CNT spray coatings on copper substrate were exposed to high energy laser beams (continuous wave at 10.6 μm, 2.5 kW CO2 laser, 10 seconds) and resulting change in its microstructure was studied ex-situ. With the aid of multiple techniques we ascertained the thermal damage resistance to be 15 kW/cm2 with optical absorbance exceeding 97 %. This represents one order of magnitude improvement over bare CNTs (1.4 kW/cm2) coatings and two orders of magnitude over the conventional carbon paint (0.1 kW/cm2) currently in use. The second application involved use of SiBCN/CNT and SiOC/CNT composite coatings as energy storage (anode) material in a Li-ion rechargeable battery. Anode coatings (~1mg/cm2) prepared using SiBCN/CNT synthesized at 1100 °C exhibited high reversible (useable) capacity of 412 mAh/g even after 30 cycles. Further improvement in reversible capacity was obtained for SiOC/CNT coatings with 686 mAh/g at 40 cycles and approximately 99.6 % cyclic efficiency. Further, post cycling imaging of dissembled cells indicated good mechanical stability of these anodes and formation of a stable passivating layer necessary for long term cycling of the cell. This improved performance was collectively attributed to the amorphous ceramic shell that offered Li storage sites and the CNT core that provided the required mechanical strength against volume changes associated with repeated Li-cycling. This novel approach for synthesis of PDC nanocomposites and its application based testing offers a starting point to carry out further research with a variety of PDC chemistries at both fundamental and applied levels.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering / Gurpreet Singh / Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and polymer-derived ceramics (PDC) have gained considerable research attention due to their unique structure and physical properties. Carbon nanotubes are known for their exceptional mechanical (Young’s modulus= 1 TPa) and thermal properties (thermal conductivity = 4000 W/m.K). However, CNTs tend to lose their unique -sp2 carbon structure and cylindrical geometry at temperatures close 400°C in air. PDC, which are obtained by the controlled degradation of certain organosilicon polymers however exhibit high temperature stability (upto approx. 1400 °C). To this end, a hybrid composite material consisting of PDC functionalized CNT is of interest as it can combine the unique physical properties of the two materials for applications requiring operation under harsh conditions. Here, we report synthesis and chemical characterization of an Al-modified polysilazane polymer, which was later utilized to functionalize the outer surfaces of four commercially available CNTs. This polymer-CNT composite upon heating in nitrogen environment resulted in Si(Al)CN-CNT ceramic composite. The composite was characterized using a variety of spectroscopic methods such Raman, FTIR and electron microscopy. The thermal stability of the ceramic composite was studied by use of Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) that showed an improvement in the thermal stability compared to bare nanotubes. Further, we also demonstrate that a stable dispersion of the composite in organic solvents such as toluene can be spray coated on a variety of substrates such as copper disks and foils. Such coatings have application in high energy laser power meters. This research opens new avenues for future applications of this novel material as coatings on surfaces that require both good thermal properties and protection against degradation in high temperature environments. We also suggest the future use of this material as an electrode material in high electrochemical capacity rechargeable batteries.

Non-oxide porous ceramics exhibit many unique and superior properties, such as better high-temperature stability, improved chemical inertness/corrosive resistance, as well as wide band-gap semiconducting behavior, which lead to numerous potential applications in catalysis, high temperature electronic and photonic devices, and micro-electromechanical systems. Currently, most mesoporous non-oxide ceramics (e.g. SiC) are formed by two-step templating methods, which are hard to adjust the pore sizes, and require a harmful etching step or a high temperature treatment to remove the templates. In this dissertation, we report a novel technique for synthesizing hierarchically mesoporous non-oxide SiC ceramic from a block copolymer precursor. The copolymer precursors with vairing block length were synthesized by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. The block copolymers self-assemble into nano-scaled micelles with a core-shell structure in toluene. With different operation processes, hollow SiC nanospheres and bulk mesoporous SiC ceramics were synthesized after the subsequent pyrolysis of precorsur micelles. The resultant SiC ceramics have potential applications in catalysis, solar cells, separation, and purification processes.The polymer synthesis and pyrolysis process will investigated by NMR, FTIR, GPC, TEM, and TGA/DSC. The morphology and structure of synthesised SiC hollow spheres and mesoporous ceramics were analyzed by SEM, TGA/DSC and BET/BJH analysis. Besides forming core shell micelles in selective solvent Toluene, we found that PVSZ-b-PS could also exhibit this property in the air water interface. By inducing the Langmuir-Blodgett deposition, a precursor monolayer with homogeously distributed povinylsilazane particles deposited on silicon wafer synthesized by spreading the diblock copolymer PVSZ-b-PS in the air water interface. After the pyrolysis process, orderly arranging SiC nano particles formed from the polymer precursor monolayer doped on the surface of silicon wafer, which shows great potential as an optoelectronic material. The deposition process and the relationship between compress pressure and monolayer morphology were studies, and the structure of monolayer and SiC dots were investigated by AFM, SEM.

Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) are a unique class of multifunctional materials synthesized by thermal decomposition of polymeric precursors. Due to their unique and excellent properties and flexible manufacturing capability, PDC is a promising technology to prepare ceramic fibers, coatings, composites and micro-sensors for high-temperature applications. However, the structure-property relationships of PDCs have not been well understood. The lack of such understandings drastically limited the further developments and applications of the materials. In this dissertation, the structure and properties of amorphous polymer-derived silicon carbonitride (SiCN) and silicoboron carbonitride (SiBCN) have been studied. The SiCN was obtained using commercially available polysilazane as pre-ceramic precursor, and the SiBCN ceramics with varied Si-to-B ratio were obtained from polyborosilazanes, which were synthesized by the hydroboration and dehydrocoupling reaction of borane and polysilazane. The structural evolution of polymer-derived SiCN and SiBCN ceramics from polymer to ceramics was investigated by NMR, FTIR, Raman, EPR, TG/DTA, and XRD. The results show a phaseseparation of amorphous matrix and a graphitization of “free” carbon phase, and suggest that the boron doping has a great influence on the structural evolution. The electric and dielectric properties of the SiCN and SiBCNs were studied by I-V curves, LCR Meter, and network analyzer. A new electronic conduction mechanism and structure model has been proposed to account for the relationships between the observed properties and microstructure of the materials. Furthermore, the SiBCN ceramics showed the improved dielectric properties at characterization iv temperature up to 1300 ºC, which allows the fabrication of ultrahigh-temperature wireless microsensors for extreme environments.

Polymer-derived ceramic (PDC) is the name for a class of materials synthesized by thermal decomposition of polymeric precursors which excellent thermomechanical properties, such as high thermal stability, high oxidation/corrosion resistance and high temperature multifunctionalities. Direct polymer-to-ceramic processing routes of PDCs allow easier fabrication into various components/devices with complex shapes/structures. Due to these unique properties, PDCs are considered as promising candidates for making high-temperature sensors for harsh environment applications, including high temperatures, high stress, corrosive species and/or radiation. The SiAlCN ceramics were synthesized using the liquid precursor of polysilazane (HTT1800) and aluminum-sec-tri-butoxide (ASB) as starting materials and dicumyl peroxide (DP) as thermal initiator. The as-received SiAlCN ceramics have very good thermal-mechanical properties and no detectable weight loss and large scale crystallization. Solid-state NMR indicates that SiAlCN ceramics have the SiN4, SiO4, SiCN3, and AlN5/AlN6 units. Raman spectra reveals that SiAlCN ceramics contain “free carbon” phase with two specific Raman peaks of “D” band and “G” band at 1350 cm1 and 1600 cm1 , respectively. The “free carbon” becomes more and more ordered with increasing the pyrolysis temperature. EPR results show that the defects in SiAlCN ceramics are carbon-related with a g-factor of 2.0016±0.0006. Meanwhile, the defect concentration decreases with increasing sintered temperature, which is consistent with the results obtained from Raman spectra. iv Electric and dielectric properties of SiAlCN ceramics were characterized. The D.C. conductivity of SiAlCN ceramics increases with increasing sintered temperature and the activation energy is about 5.1 eV which higher than that of SiCN ceramics due to the presence of oxygen. The temperature dependent conductivity indicates that the conducting mechanism is a semiconducting band-gap model and follows the Arrhenius equation with two different sections of activation energy of 0.57 eVand 0.23 eV, respectively. The temperature dependent conductivity makes SiAlCN ceramics suit able for high temperature sensor applications. The dielectric properties were carried out by the Agilent 4298A LRC meter. The results reveal an increase in both dielectric constant and loss with increasing temperature (both pyrolysis and tested). Dielectric loss is dominated by the increasing of conductivity of SiAlCN ceramics at high sintered temperatures. SiAlCN ceramic sensors were fabricated by using the micro-machining method. High temperature wire bonding issues were solved by the integrity embedded method (IEM). It’s found that the micro-machining method is a promising and cost-effective way to fabricate PDC high temperature sensors. Moreover IEM is a good method to solve the high temperature wire bonding problems with clear bonding interface between the SiAlCN sensor head and Pt wires. The Wheatstone bridge circuit is well designed by considering the resistance relationship between the matching resistor and the SiAlCN sensor resistor. It was found that the maximum sensitivity can be achieved when the resistance of matching resistor is equal to that of the SiAlCN v sensor. The as-received SiAlCN ceramic sensor was tested up to 600 C with the relative output voltage changing from -3.932 V to 1.153 V. The results indicate that the relationship between output voltage and test temperature is nonlinear. The tested sensor output voltage agrees well with the simulated results. The durability test was carried out at 510 C for more than two hours. It was found that the output voltage remained constant for the first 30 min and then decreased gradually afterward by 0.02, 0.04 and 0.07 V for 1, 1.5 and 2 hours.

Grâce à ses excellentes propriétés de résistance et de conductivité thermique ainsi qu'à sa stabilité mécanique et chimique à température ambiante et à haute température, le carbure de silicium (SiC) est un matériau de choix pour le gainage du combustible nucléaire ou les supports de catalyseurs. Cependant, une grande surface spécifique est souvent requise pour ce type d'applications. Cette étude propose deux approches de synthèse :(1) L'approche « Soft Templating ». La porosité et la structure des matériaux finaux sont définies par l'auto-assemblage supramoléculaire d'un agent de structure (SDA) dans un précurseur moléculaire de SiC. Des organogélateurs à faible masse moléculaire et un copolymère tri-bloc commercial sont considérés pour la synthèse de SiC méso-poreux.(2) L'approche « Hard Templating ». Des céramiques SiC sont synthétisées par nanomoulage de silices méso-poreuses par des polymères précéramiques. Ce procédé conserve la nanostructure du template solide et conduit à des SiC méso-poreux à forte surface spécifique.L'approche hard templating permet une bonne réplication du template solide mais la difficulté de cette méthode provient de l'étape d'élimination de ce même template. L'approche soft templating ne présente pas ce désavantage et peut, suivant le SDA utilisé, mener à des céramiques poreuses possédant des structures beaucoup plus variées. La complexité de cette approche réside dans l'étape de réplication du template. / Due to its excellent thermal resistance, mechanical and chemical stability both at room and elevated temperature, silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive material for nuclear fuel cladding or catalyst substrates. Pore size control and high porosity are the key factors for such applications. Two approaches are studied during this PhD thesis:(1) The Soft Templating Approach. The porosity and the structure of the final materials are defined by the supramolecular self-assembly of a structure directing agent (SDA) into a molecular SiC precursor. Low molecular-mass organic gelators and a commercial tri-block copolymer are considered as SDA for the synthesis of mesoporous SiC materials.(2) The Hard Templating Approach. SiC materials are synthesized by preceramic polymer nanocasting into mesoporous silica. This process preserves the nanoscale structure of the solid template and leads to mesostructured SiC materials with a high specific surface area.The hard templating approach allows a good replication of the solid template but the difficulty of this method lies in the elimination step of this template. Meanwhile, soft templating approach does not have this drawback and may lead to porous ceramics with more varied structures depending on the SDA used. The complexity of this approach is the template replication step.

Master of Science / Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Kevin B. Lease / Gurpreet Singh / Energy has always been one of the most important factors in any type of human or industrial endeavor. Clean energy and alternative energy sources are slowly but steadily replacing fossil fuels, the over-dependence on which have led to many environmental and economic troubles over the past century. The main challenge that needs to be addressed in switching to clean energy is storing it for use in the electrical grid and transportation systems. Lithium ion batteries are currently one of the most promising energy storage devices and tremendous amount of research is being done in high capacity anode and cathode materials, and better electrolytes and battery packs as well, leading to overall high efficiency and capacity energy storage systems. Polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) are a special class of ceramics, usually used in high temperature applications, but some silicon based PDCs have demonstrated good electrochemical properties in lithium ion batteries. The goal of this research is to explore a special hybrid ceramic of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and silicon oxy carbide (SiOC) ceramic derived from 1,3,5,7 -- tetravinyl -- 1,3,5,7 -- tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane (TTCS) polymer for use in lithium ion batteries and investigate the source of its properties which might make the ceramic particularly useful in some highly specialized energy storage applications.

Bien que proposant des avantages importants par rapport à d'autres matériaux, les céramiques présentent un défaut récurrent, qui est leur plus ou moins grande fragilité due à des défauts de structure ou à des impuretés dans les réseaux structuraux. On s’affranchit de ces contraintes en améliorant la pureté des matériaux de base, en maîtrisant mieux les processus de fabrication, en les renforçant et en nanostructurant le matériau. C’est ce qui a donné naissance aux méthodes chimiques d’élaboration dites de « Bottom-up » qui reprennent le schéma de principe de la conception de la céramique naturelle en s’adaptant à la démarche des chimistes : des briques élémentaires représentant une architecture moléculaire sont assemblées pour former un composé macromoléculaire dont la composition est contrôlée à l’échelle atomique. Ce composé est mis en forme, durcit pour être transformé par cuisson en une céramique dont la composition est directement liée à la structure moléculaire des briques. Cette démarche est à l’origine de la voie dite des « polymères précéramiques ». Cette voie chimique s’adapte aux exigences des domaines de l’énergie. Notamment et afin d’exploiter et de saisir les opportunités que constituent l’apparition de nouveaux besoins en matériaux et/ou l’établissement de cahiers des charges stricts au regard des propriétés des matériaux dans ce domaine, la présente étude a pour objet d’élaborer des matériaux à base de BN comme les composites à renforts fibreux, les nanocomposites et les mousses.Après une introduction générale, le chapitre 1 décrit l’état de l’art de BN. Il s’intéresse à la littérature sur les propriétés des différentes formes du BN. La voie PDCs est détaillée et son application à l’élaboration du h-BN. Les différents types de précurseurs et de polymères sont décrits et l’accent est mis sur le borazine et le polyborazylène. La dernière partie concerne l’élaboration des composites à renforts fibreux, les nanocomposites et les mousses à base de BN qui sont considérés.Le chapitre 2 s’intéresse à l’élaboration de C/BN composites à partir de polyborazylènes qui est un projet de recherche sur ITER. Après un rappel sur le contexte de CEA, les différentes étapes liées au procédé d’élaboration des composites sont décrites et étudiées à l’aide d’outils de caractérisation comme la RMN solide,TGA, XRD et SEM. Le chapitre 3 s’intéresse à des nanocomposites qui se caractérisent par des phases nanocristallines de nitrure métallique parmi le nitrure de titane, de zirconium et d’hafnium dispersés dans une matrice de BN faiblement cristallisée. L’accent est mis sur la chimie moléculaire et sur la synthèse de polymétalloborazines qui permettent de conduire par pyrolyse à la formation directe de ces nanocomposites par croissance in-situ de la phase nanocristalline dans la matrice BN. Une étude préliminaire sur la possibilité de mettre en forme les polyméres en vue d’élaborer des structures massives nanocomposites est abordée.Le chapitre 4 se consacre à deux procédés de préparation de mousses. Le premier procédé qui combine la voie PDCs à la chimie intégrative vise à élaborer des mousses BN à porosité hiérarchisée. Le second procédé consiste à mélanger PMMA avec polyborazylènes pour subir des étapes de compactage et de pyrolyse générant des mousses. Pour ces deux types de matériaux, des mesures texturales comme BET et la porosimétrie mercure sont entreprises.Une conclusion générale termine le manuscrit. Elle fait un rappel des travaux entrepris dans chacun des trois chapitres et donne des perspectives liées aux trois types de matériau étudiés pendant la thèse. / Energy developments have brought hexagonal boron nitride-based materials increasing interest for future materials and technologies. The objective of this thesis concerns the preparation of BN shapes for energy applications including fiber-reinforced BN composites, BN-based nanocomposites and BN foams. Fiber-reinforced BN composite and BN nanocomposites display potential as tiles for protection limiters for the Ion Cyclotron Range Frequency antennas in fusion nuclear reactors. Porous BN materials have interests as host material for hydrogen storage and as catalyst supports. The Polymer-Derived Ceramics route which offers new preparation opportunities in chemistry and ceramic sciences is applied to manufacture shaped BN-based materials.Firstly, in the context of C/BN composite, polyborazylene vacuum-assisted infiltration and pyrolysis process was successfully introduced. We focused on the design, elaboration and properties of the C/BN composite through the study of the (1) synthesis and polymerization of borazine, (2) the polyborazylene-to-boron nitride conversion, (3) the morphological texture and mechanical properties of derived C/BN composites. We firstly demonstrated that it is possible to obtain dense-derived C/BN composites (density: 1.773 g cm-3, open porosity: 5.09%) by tuning the viscosity of polyborazylene in the infiltration process. SEM observation presented a very strong bonding between fibers and matrix. TGA under air analysis confirmed the improved oxidation resistance property of C/BN composite compared with C fiber.Secondly, we investigated the design, processing, and properties of transition metal-containing boron nitride nanocomposites from polymetalloborazine. With proper choice of boron nitride precursor, and by controlling the B/M ratio (M = Ti, Zr, Hf), a set of representative polymetalloborazines has been prepared as precursors of nanocomposites. In the reaction of BN source with metal precursor leading to polymetalloborazines, two main mechanisms are mainly concerned: N-H and B-H units of BN percursor react with N-alkyl groups presented in metal precursors. After its pyrolysis under ammonia up to 1000 oC then nitrogen from 1000 to 1500oC, the derived nanocomposites reveal the presence of metal nitride nanocrystales with an average diameter of 6.5 nm homogeneously embedded in a poorly crystallized boron nitride matrix. A preliminary study is presented on the preparation of monolith-type nanocomposites from selected polytitanoborazines. Finally, we applied two PDCs route-based strategies to prepare hierarchically porous and micro cellular BN foams. In the first strategy, monolith-type BN foams with a hierarchical porosity were synthesized from polyborazylene using an integrative chemistry combined-based sequence set-up that consists of the impregnation of silica and carbonaceous templates followed by pyrolysis process and elimination of the template. These novel porous BN architectures display hierarchical and high porosity (76 %) with an open-cell interconnected macroporosity and a surface area up to 300 m2g-1. In the second strategy, a sacrificial processing route has been proposed to fabricate micro cellular BN foams with a porosity of 79 % from a mixture of polyborazylene and poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) microbeads by warm-pressing followed by pyrolysis consisting of the burn-out of PMMA while polyborazylene is converted into BN. These novel BN foams display potential as catalyst supports and host material for hydrogen storage.

Cette thèse conclut 3 années d'études doctorales sur le "dépôt de couches atomiques (ALD) de nitrure de bore (BN)". Le but de ce travail a été d'adapter la voie des céramiques dérivées de polymères (PDC) à la technique ALD pour la croissance de films minces de h-BN et l'élaboration de nanostructures fonctionnelles. Tout d'abord, un nouveau procédé d'ALD sans ammoniac en deux étapes, comprenant une croissance par ALD à basse température (80 °C) de polyborazine (PBN) à partir de 2,4,6-trichloroborazine et d'hexaméthyldisilazane suivi un traitement thermique à haute température sous atmosphère contrôlée a été développé. Ainsi, des films minces uniformes et homogènes de BN ont pu être déposés sur divers substrats. Le caractère autolimité des réactions mises en jeu ainsi que l'homogénéité des films sur des supports très structurés ont été vérifiés. De ce fait des nanostructures fonctionnelles BN ont été réalisées à partir de substrats ou de templates de dimensionnalité variée. Leurs applications en tant que revêtements protecteurs et comme filtres et éponges absorbantes pour purifier les eaux polluées par des hydrocarbures ont en particulier été étudiées. Enfin, un deuxième procédé ALD basse température (85-150°C) utilisant le tri(isopropylamino)borane et la méthylamine comme précurseurs a été préalablement étudié afin de confirmer l'adaptabilité de la voie PDC et la technique ALD. Des films minces de BN ont été obtenus sur des substrats plans et il a été prouvé que les vapeurs de tri(isopropylamino)borane peuvent infiltrer des fibres de polyacrylonitrile électrofilées.Ce travail a été entièrement réalisé à l'Université de Lyon et a reçu le soutien financier du China Scholarship Council (CSC) pour la bourse de doctorat ainsi que de l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche (projet n° ANR-16-CE08-0021-01) / This thesis achieves 3 years of PhD studies on “Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of boron nitride (BN)”. The aim of this PhD work is to adapt the polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) route to the ALD technique for h-BN thin film growth and elaboration of functional nanostructures. A novel two-step ammonia-free ALD process, which includes ALD deposition of polyborazine at low temperature (80 °C) from 2,4,6-trichloroborazine and hexamethyldisilazane followed by post heat treatment under controlled atmosphere, has been established. Conformal and homogeneous BN thin films have been deposited onto various substrates. The self-limitation of the reactions on flat substrates and the conformality of the films on structured substrates have been verified. Functional BN nanostructures have thus been fabricated using substrates or templates with different dimensionalities. In particular, their applications as protective coatings as well as filter and absorber to purify polluted water from organic/oil hav e been investigated. Finally, a second low temperature (85-150 °C) ALD process using tri(isopropylamine)borane and methylamine as precursors has preliminary been studied in order to confirm the adaptability of PDCs route to ALD technique. BN thin films have been grown onto flat substrate and it has been proven that tri(isopropylamino)borane vapor can infiltrate into electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers.This work was carried out at University of Lyon and financially supported by the National Research Agency (project n° ANR-16-CE08-0021-01)