Polymer-metal slurry reactive melt infiltration: A flexible and controllable ceramic modification strategy for irregular C/C components

Abstract

Herein, we investigate the applicability of the polycarbosilane (PCS)–metal slurry reactive melt infiltration (RMI) process to various metals. The slurry exhibiting the best ceramized ability was used to examine the relationship between the ceramic thickness and reactive time, ceramic thickness and reactive temperature, and infiltration depth and slurry-coating thickness. The results show that the thickness of the ceramic layer increases with reactive time and temperature and the infiltration depth increases with the coating thickness. PCS–Si90Zr10 slurry RMI was selected to modify cylindrical nozzle C/C preforms, and dense C/C–SiC–ZrC composites with a density of ~2.05 g cm−3 were obtained. Owing to the good control of the PCS–Si90Zr10 slurry RMI on the interface, matrix, and carbon fiber of the as-received cylindrical composites, the bending strength of the C/C–SiC–ZrC composites was as high as 306.4 MPa, which is considerably higher than that of a C/C preforms (70.4 MPa). Considering the ablation resistance, the mass and linear ablation rates of the C/C–SiC–ZrC composite (~0.29 mg s−1 and ~2.48 × 10−3 mm s−1, respectively) were similar to those of the composites prepared using traditional RMI (~0.23 mg s−1 and ~2.29 × 10−3 mm s−1). The proposed polymer–metal RMI is more suitable for the modification of C/C preforms with thin-wall structures owing to its advantages including precise control of infiltration dose and flexible operation of slurry coating. Furthermore, it is suitable for the local modification of C/C components.