Preparation and ablation properties of ZrC–SiC coating for carbon/carbon composites by solid phase infiltration

A novel ZrC–SiC coating was prepared on carbon/carbon (C/C) composites surface by solid phase infiltration and the ablation properties of the ZrC–SiC coated C/C composites under oxyacetylene flame were studied. The results show that the coating prepared on the condition of optimum process parameters exhibits dense surface and outstanding anti-ablation ability. After ablation for 20 s, the mass ablation rates of the coated C/C composites can be lowered to 2.36 × 10−3 g/s, 37.1% reduction compared with uncoated C/C composites. The oxide layer composed of ZrO2 and SiO2 acts as oxygen diffusion barrier and the evaporation of ZrO2 and SiO2 absorbs a great amount of heat from the flame and reduces the erosive attack on the coating.