High temperature anti‐oxidation behavior of in situ and ex situ nanostructured C/SiC/ZrB2‐SiC gradient coatings: Thermodynamical evolution,microstructural characterization,and residual stress analysis

Nanostructured C/SiC/ZrB₂–SiC oxidation protective gradient coating was prepared by a two‐step reactive melt infiltration method. In order to reduce production cost, ZrB₂ phase was synthesized by the in situ reactive that included low‐cost ZrO₂ and B₂O₃ powders as raw materials. High‐temperature oxidation behavior of coatings was evaluated by isothermal oxidation test at 1773 K in air for 10 hours. Thermodynamical behavior of the coatings at various temperatures during oxidation test and coating process was predicted by HSC Chemistry 6.0 software. Compressive residual stresses of 36.9 MPa and 41 MPa were calculated for in situ and ex situ coatings by Williamson‐Hall method. After 10 hours of isothermal oxidation at 1773K, in situ and ex situ coatings showed 12.84% and 15.69% of weight losses with oxidation rates of 1.87 × 10^?2 g cm^?3 h^?1 and 0.91 × 10^?2 g cm^?3 h^?1, respectively. These results indicated that the oxidation protection ability of the coating produced by the in situ method was very close to ex situ coating.