Fabrication and performance of micro-diamond modified C/SiC composites via precursor impregnation and pyrolysis process

Micro-diamond modified C/SiC (C/SiC-D) composites were fabricated using pressureless infiltration (PI) and precursor impregnation and pyrolysis (PIP) methods. The influence of micro-diamond addition on the ablation and mechanical properties of C/SiC composites was discussed. Results show that, compared with C/SiC composites, the thermal conductivity of C/SiC-D composites improves 33.7% due to the good thermal properties of diamond particles and the strong connection with SiC matrix. Meanwhile, C/SiC-D composites exhibit significantly enhanced ablation resistance, with the linear ablation rate decreasing by 43.3%, from 0.030 mm s(-1) to 0.017 mm s(-1). The introduction of micro-diamond only brings a limited enhancement to the mechanical properties of C/SiC composites due to the small size and low content of the diamond caused by the limitation of PI method.