Microstructure of a Mo-Si-C-N multi-layered anti-oxidation coating on carbon/carbon composites by fused slurry

A Mo-Si-C-N multi-layered anti-oxidation coating was in-situ fabricated by introducing nitrogen atmosphere during the fused sintering of Mo-Si slurry pre-layer on carbon/carbon composites. The phase composition and microstructure of the Mo-Si-C-N coating were character-ized by X-ray diffractometry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The Mo-Si-C-N coating exhibited a three-layered structure. Besides the MoSi2/Si main-layer and the SiC bonding-layer, a surface layer of about 10 μm in thickness was synthesized on the coating surface. The surface layer mainly consisted of SiC nanowires and contained some Si3N4 and Si phases. SiC nanowires of 10 to 200 nm in diameter presented a terrace and distortion structure. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that the SiC nanowires grew along the preferred <111> direction. Dur-ing oxidation test, SiC nanowires transmuted into Sit2 glass, which can play an important role in improving the oxidation resistance of C/C composites.