The Ablation and Oxidation Behaviors of SiC Coatings on Graphite Prepared by Slurry Sintering and Pack Cementation

Abstract

SiC coatings were generated on graphite using slurry sintering (SS) and pack cementation (PC). The samples’ ablation features were assessed by an oxyacetylene torch. The rates of mass ablation of the PC–SiC and SS–SiC coatings were approximated 2.17 × 10−3 and 9.52 × 10−3 g s−1, respectively, decreased by 84.1 and 29.6% compared to the uncoated samples. It was mainly attributed to the formation of a SiO2 layer on the surface. The continuous SiO2 molten film formed via the PC–SiC oxidation generates a sealing mechanism which can be an obstacle against the oxygen diffusion and hinder more ablation. This is while discontinuous SiO2 film formed from the thin SS–SiC cannot protect the graphite effectively. The non-isothermal oxidation test shows that without the SiC coating, the sample weight is lost largely from 25 to 1500 °C, and its weight loss was 2.2% after the TGA. However, after coating, the samples possessed excellent oxidation protection and weight losses of SS–SiC and PC–SiC coatings are down to 1.3 and 0.6%, respectively. The more oxidation of the graphite substrate occurred due to the formation of macrocracks in the coating during the TGA and also the formation of holes on SiO2 glass layer owing to release of CO or CO2.