Microstructure and ablation resistance of ZrC nanostructured coating for carbon/carbon composites

In order to improve the ablation resistance of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites, a ZrC nanostructured coating was prepared on C/C composites by chemical vapor deposition. Results show that the coating contains ZrC grains with the size of 20-30 nm and the structure displays a high consistent orientation. This nanostructured coating has improvements in linear and mass ablation rates of 50.7% and 42.1% compared with those of the conventional ZrC coating. The good ablation resistance could be attributed to the efficient prevention of the coating cracking and the formation of the dense ZrO ₂ layer during ablation.