Improvement of ablation resistance of C/C–SiC–ZrC composites by synergistic modification strategy with graphene and mullite

• Published in: Ceramics international 2024-09, Vol.50 (17), p.29763-29775
• Main Authors: Jiao, Xiaoyang, He, Qinchuan, Wang, Yiqun, Wang, Changcong, Yin, Xuemin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ablation; Carbon/carbon composites; Graphene; Matrix modification; Mullite
• ISSN: 0272-8842
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2024.05.272

Synergistic modification strategy of graphene and mullite was used to introduce mullite and graphene into C/C–SiC–ZrC composites by chemical liquid-vapor deposition to improve ablation resistance. The ablation resistance and behaviors were comparatively studied under a heat flux of 2.38 MW/m2 for 100 s. Results showed that the appropriate content mullite modified C/C–SiC–ZrC composites has better ablation resistance due to the sufficient SiO2, Al2O3, and ZrSiO4 as healing agents and oxygen barrier and the synergistic effect with ZrO2 to form a denser and more stable oxide layer with the mass and linear ablation rates of 0.69 mg/s and −0.93 μm/s, respectively. The introduction of graphene improves the heat-force distribution, and as a high heat transfer medium and reinforcing phase, reduces the thermal concentration, cracking, and spalling of the oxide layer and further improves the ablation resistance, with mass ablation rate and linear ablation rate of −0.34 mg/s and −0.89 μm/s, respectively.