Improved oxidation resistance of chemical vapor reaction SiC coating modified with silica for carbon/carbon composites

To protect carbon/carbon (C/C) composites from oxidation, a SiC coating modified with SiO₂ was prepared by a complex technology. The inner SiC coating with thickness varying from 150 to 300 μm was initially coated by chemical vapor reaction (CVR): a simple and cheap technique to prepare the SiC coating via siliconizing the substrate that was exposed to the mixed vapor (Si and SiO₂) at high temperatures (1 923–2 273 K). Then the as-prepared coating was processed by a dipping and drying procedure with tetraethoxysilane as source materials to form SiO₂ to fill the cracks and holes. Oxidation tests show that, after oxidation in air at 1 623 K for 10 h and thermal cycling between 1 623 K and room temperature 5 times, the mass loss of the CVR coated sample is up to 18.21%, while the sample coated with modified coating is only 5.96%, exhibiting an obvious improvement of oxidation and thermal shock resistance of the coating. The mass loss of the modified sample is mainly contributed to the reaction of C/C substrate with oxygen diffusing through the penetrating cracks formed in thermal shock tests.