Ablation resistance of SiC-ZrC coating prepared by a simple two-step method on carbon fiber reinforced composites

SiC-ZrC ablation resistance coating was prepared on the surface of carbon fiber reinforced carbon (C/C) composites by simple pack cementation combined with low-cost slurry infiltration method. The results showed that SiC-ZrC coating could effectively protect C/C composites from ablation for 45 s at 3723 K under oxyacetylene torch. The mass and linear ablation rates (0.038 +/- 0.01 mg/(s cm(2)) and 2.42 +/- 0.15 mu m/s) were largely reduced compared with that of uncoated C/C composites (0.530 +/- 0.01 mg/ (s cm(2)) and 1.75 +/- 0.15 mu m/s) after ablation for 20 s. The good ablation protective ability of SiC-ZrC coating is mainly attributed to the volatilization of SiO2 and the formation of ZrO2. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.