Materials (Mar 2023)

Microstructure and Ablation Behavior of C/C-SiC-(Zr<sub>x</sub>Hf<sub>1−x</sub>)C Composites Prepared by Reactive Melt Infiltration Method

  • Zaidong Liu,
  • Yalei Wang,
  • Xiang Xiong,
  • Zhiyong Ye,
  • Quanyuan Long,
  • Jinming Wang,
  • Tongqi Li,
  • Congcong Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16052120
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 5
p. 2120

Abstract

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C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites were prepared by the reactive melt infiltration method. The microstructure of the porous C/C skeleton and the C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites, as well as the structural evolution and ablation behavior of the C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites, were systematically investigated. The results show that the C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites were mainly composed of carbon fiber, carbon matrix, SiC ceramic, (ZrxHf1−x)C and (ZrxHf1−x)Si2 solid solutions. The refinement of the pore structure is beneficial to promote the formation of (ZrxHf1−x)C ceramic. The C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites exhibited outstanding ablation resistance under an air–plasma environment at around 2000 °C. After ablation for 60 s, CMC-1 appeared to possess the minimum mass and linear ablation rates of only 2.696 mg/s and −0.814 µm/s, respectively, which are lower than those of CMC-2 and CMC-3. During the ablation process, a Bi-liquid phase and a liquid–solid two-phase structure were formed on the ablation surface which could act as an oxygen diffusion barrier to retard further ablation, which is responsible for the excellent ablation resistance of the C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1−x)C composites.

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