Regenerative laminar pyrocarbon

This work reports on a dense laminar pyrocarbon infiltrated at low temperature, not previously described. By using pulse-CVI and/or toluene for example, a pyrocarbon can be developed with a density as high as that of rough laminar pyrocarbon (RL) but with a regenerative texture. It will be referred to as regenerative laminar (ReL). This pyrocarbon is characterized by a high density (d = 2.11), a high bireflectance and the maximum value for the extinction angle: A(e) = 22degrees, the latter being related to its high anisotropy. Contrary to rough laminar, regenerative laminar exhibits a smooth extinction of the Maltese-cross in polarized light. This is related, by means of TEM, to the regeneration of thin cones all along the growth. Rough laminar is not regenerative: it contains only primary cones. The regeneration of cones is found to be due to the lateral extent of the layers; on the contrary, rough laminar is grown from small layers which cannot propagate lattice defects (no regeneration). The experimental evidence is based on the infiltration of preforms by using toluene as precursor and pressure-pulsed chemical vapor infiltation (P-CVI). A reference carbon/carbon, RL, is also obtained with the same preform (3D PAN-based needled preform) by using the classical isobaric-isothermal chemical vapor infiltration with a methane-propane mix (I-CVI). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.