Action mechanism of hydrogen gas on deposition of HfC coating using HfCl4-CH4-H2-Ar system

Hafnium carbide coatings were deposited on carbon/carbon composites by low pressure chemical vapor deposition using HfCl4-CH4-H-2-Ar system. The microstructure, mechanical and ablation resistance performance of HfC coatings deposited with various H-2 concentrations were investigated. The effect of hydrogen gas on the deposition of HfC coating was also discussed. Results show that all of the deposited coatings are composed of single cubic HfC phase, the hydrogen gas acted as a crucial role in determining the preferred orientation, microstructure and growth behavior of HfC coatings. During the deposition process, the gas phase supersaturation of the reaction species can be controlled by adjusting the hydrogen gas concentration. When deposited with low hydrogen gas concentration, the coating growth was dominated by the nucleation of HfC, which results in the particle-stacked structure of HfC coating. Otherwise, the coating growth was dominated by the crystal growth at high hydrogen gas concentration, which leads to the column-arranged structure of HfC coating. Under the ablation environment, the coating C2 exhibits better configurational stability and ablation resistance. The coating structure has a significant influence on the mechanical and ablation resistance properties of HfC coating. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.