Three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous SiC samples with highly ordered porosity were prepared using three different routes. The essential difference was in the first step in which sacrificial uniform silica spheres were packed into ordered three-dimensional arrays using: i) sedimentation, ii) centrifugation and iii) electrophoretic deposition (EPD) methods. Regardless of the method used, the quality of arrays was quite high and reproducible. The prepared silica arrays were infiltrated with a pre-ceramic polymer precursor. The infiltration step was followed by a thermal curing step, a pyrolysis step at 850 oC in an Ar atmosphere and, finally, removal of the silica templates by etching with a 3M NaOH solution. The final products were porous 3D SiC samples with typical volumes around 1 cm3 and a pore size of 240 or 650 nm. The synthesized porous SiC was characterized using SEM, TEM and XRD methods.

Keywords: Silica, Silicon carbide, Sacrificing template method, Electrophoretic deposition, Porous material.