Improved ablation resistance of silicone/phenolic hybrid resin coatings with Zr-Si-O glass as anti-ablation layer

Abstract

With the development of the new generation space vehicles, traditional phenolic resin (PR)-based coatings are no longer able to meet the increasingly harsh thermal environment. There is an urgent need to develop higher performance PR to ensure the flight safety of aircraft. Therefore, in this work, a novel hyperbranched polysiloxane containing Si-O-Zr bond was synthesized and then introduced into PR to develop homogeneous silicone/phenolic hybrid resin coatings. The TG results indicate that the introduction of Si-O-Zr bonds significantly improves the heat resistance of silicone. During ablation, the hyperbranched polysiloxane will undergo a ceramization to produce SiO2 and ZrO2 particles, both of which will subsequently generate a highly viscous Zr-Si-O glassy phase as anti-ablation layer. With the fluidity and self-healing properties, it can fill the gaps of the carbon layer and cover the surface of the carbon layer, giving the hybrid resin excellent ablative resistance. The linear ablation rate of the hybrid resin can be as low as 0.003 mm/s, which is an 80 % decrease compared to pure PR. The synthesized hybrid resin is expected to act as superior thermal protection coatings for the next generation of spaceflight.