A process to synthesize continuous conducting nanofibers were developed using PEDOT:PSS as a conducting polymer and an electrospinning method. Experimental parameters were carefully explored to achieve reproducible conductive nanofibers synthesis in large quantities. In particular, relative humidity during the electrospinning process was proven to be of critical importance, as well as doping post-treatment involving glycols and alcohols. The synthesized fibers were assembled as a mat on glass substrates, forming a conductive and transparent electrode and their optoelectronic have been fully characterized. This method produces a conformable conductive and transparent coating that is well-adapted to nonplanar surfaces, having very large aspect ratio features. A demonstration of this property was made using surfaces having deep trenches and high steps, where conventional transparent conductive materials fail because of a lack of conformability.

The polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) route has been combined with a warm-pressing process to synthesize for the first time boron nitride workpieces avoiding the conventional sintering process. A polyborazylene was synthesized with a controlled degree of cross-linking suitable to be warmpressed into cylindrical green bodies which were pressureless pyrolyzed into disk-shaped boron nitride workpieces. On the basis of elemental analyses, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermomechanical analyses (TMA), the best polyborazylene candidates are those prepared by selfcondensation of borazine (B 3 N 3 H 6 ) at 60 °C under static argon in an autoclave. They displayed a chemical formula of [B 3.0 N 3.5 H 4.5 ] n , a glass transition in the temperature range 88-120 °C, a controlled dimensional change upon heating under load and a high ceramic yield. Such properties provided (i) adjusted viscoelastic properties and sufficient plasticity to be warm-pressed under 74 MPa at 60 °C into disk-shaped bodies with 13 mm in diameter in a stable operation and (ii) retention of the polymer shape during the further pyrolysis at 1450 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. Disk-shaped B 3.0 N 2.95 workpieces with a relative density of 86.3% were obtained. Solid-state 11 B NMR has been used to investigate the polyborazylene-to-BN conversion while XRD, SEM, and He-pycnometry have been performed on workpieces pyrolyzed between 1450 and 1800 °C. Densification occurred in this range to generate bulk boron nitride (B 3.0 N 2.9 ) with a relative density as high as ∼93%.