Microstructure of C/SiC braking material

Carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide matrix (C/SiC) braking materials were prepared by a reactive melt infiltration method. The microstructure characteristics of SiC were studied by means of optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope in combination with component analysis by X-ray diffraction. Results show that β-SiC zone usually forms inside the short-cut fabric, around the needling fibers, and among the fiber bundles in the non-woven web. Residual Si locates among SiC grains. In C/SiC composites, there exist two different areas of SiC, one is coarser β-SiC grains between 5-15μm at the SiC-Si interface, and the other is a zone of a fine grained β-SiC layer with dimension of about 100 nm at the SiC-C interface.