ZrC ablation protective coating for carbon/carbon composites

A zirconium carbide (ZrC) protective coating was deposited on carbon/carbon (C/C) composites by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. The phase compositions, surface and cross-section microstructures, and anti-ablative properties of the coatings were investigated. Results show that the method is an effective route to prepare a dense and thick ZrC coating on C/C composites. The coating can effectively protect C/C composites from ablation for 240 s in an oxy-acetylene torch system with a mass ablation rate of 1.1 × 10⁻⁴ g/cm² s and a linear ablation rate of 0.3 × 10⁻³ mm/s.