Microstructure changes and properties of TiC-coated carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composites

In the present paper, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to study distortion of TiC crystals after thermal cycles in plasma environment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe morphology changes and penetrating cracks in TiC/C coatings. To avoid the cracks and enhance properties of coated carbon fiber-reinforced carbon (C/C) composites, TiC/C composites were prepared as buffer layer to relieve thermal stresses. Thermal cycles indicated that the buffer layer could effectively improve thermal shock resistance of pure TiC coated C/C composites. To study the reason, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results suggested that TiC particles were uniformly imbedded in pyrocarbon in the buffer layer, which was advantageous to relieve mismatch of coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between pure TiC and C/C. Moreover, thermal conductivity tests showed that the buffer layer was in favor of transferring heat loading.