Kinetics of chemical vapor infiltration of carbon nanofiber-reinforced carbon/carbon composites

Preforms containing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were fabricated by spreading layers of carbon cloth, and infiltrated by using the technique of isothermal chemical vapor infiltration (ICVI) at the temperature of 1100 degrees C under the total pressure of 1 kPa and with the flow of the mixture of propane/nitrogen in a ratio of 13:1. The infiltration rates increased with the rising of CNF content, and after 580 h of infiltration, the achievable degree of pore filling was the highest when the CNF content was 5 wt.%, but the composite could not be densified efficiently as the CNF content ranged from 10 to 20 wt.%. An analysis of the results, based on the effective diffusion coefficient and on the in-pore deposition rates, shows that the CNFs, due to their higher aspect ratio, accelerate overgrowth at pore entrances and thus lead to incomplete pore filling. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.