Effect of CNF in-situ growth on microstructure and mechanical properties evolution of RMI-deriver C/C–SiC composites

The present paper investigates the effect of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Carbon fiber reinforced carbon and silicon carbide binary matrix (C/C–SiC) composite prepared by using the reactive melt infiltration technique. The CNFs used in this paper were generated through in-situ reaction in the pores of C/C preforms using the chemical vapor deposition. Results indicate introducing additional carbon sources in the form of CNFs in the C/C preform can remarkably improve the permeability of molten Si, resulting in higher density and more uniform microstructure of the RMI-deriver C/C–SiC composites. Consequently, the in-situ formation of CNFs reduces the residual Si content by 64.71% and increases the mechanical strength and modulus at room temperature by [22.31% and 17.89%] and after heat treatment at 1500 °C by [35.6% and 47.48%] with respect to no-CNF containing composites due to a lower amount of residual Si content and additional reinforcement effect of the unreacted CNFs.