In this report we have described fabrication of preceramic polymer-derived transparent, solvent-resistant, thermally stable and bio-compatible microchannels and substrates using soft-lithography methods such as micromolding in capillary (MIMIC) and micromolding. The micromolding technique was preferred in the current work to fabricate channels by thermal and photo crosslinking of a commercially available poly(vinyl silazane) (VL 20, KION Corporation, USA). Both thermal and photo cured preceramic polymer channels were found to possess unique glass-like characteristics, such as transparency and chemical inertness. However, their surfaces were identified to be hydrophobic with a contact angle of 101 degrees . To have an insight on the nature of the surface groups present on the surface of the cured preceramic polymer, ATR-IR was carried out. The hydrophobic nature of the cured polymer was best utilized for direct patterning of protein by nonspecific binding.

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Macroporous SiC with a highly ordered pore array was prepared for the first time using low molecular weight SiC preceramic polymers such as polymethylsilane or polycarbosilane by utilizing sacrificial colloidal silica crystalline arrays, as a template which were subsequently etched off after pyrolysis in an argon atmosphere.

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This article reports conversion chemistry of preceramic polymer to ceramic phase during the fabrication of high-temperature stable silicon carbide and silicon carbonitride monolithic porous microchannels. The micromolding in capillariesmethod is used to fabricate porous channels by the initial infiltration of a solution of 1.5-μm diameter silica spheres or 1-μm diameter polystyrene spheres into polydimethylsiloxane channels followed by filling the void space among the spheres by using viscous commercial polymeric precursors. Subsequently, the polymer-sphere composite channel was cured and pyrolysed at 1200 °C under inert atmosphere, and final wet etching step of silica spheres with 10% hydrofluoric acid solution developed the pore structures by removing the silica spheres, whereas polystyrene sphere decomposes at the early stage of pyrolysis.