Amorphous silicon oxynitride powders have been obtained by pyrolysis of pol
ysiloxazane in a stream of anhydrous NH3 at the temperature up to 1000 degr
eesC. The polysiloxazane is fabricated from ammonolysis of chloropolysiloxa
ne that is produced by the hydrolysis of silicon tetrachloride. The convers
ion of polysiloxazane to silicon oxynitride and the structural features of
the final powders have also been studied by infrared spectra, elemental com
position and X-ray diffraction analysis and SEM observation.