Fabrication of ZrB2 anti-oxidation coating on carbon/carbon composite surface by molten salt electrophoretic deposition
摘要
To address the high-temperature oxidation of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites, this study employed a novel molten salt electrophoretic deposition (MS-EPD) technique to fabricate a zirconium diboride (ZrB2) anti-oxidation coating. Using ZrB2 nanoparticles synthesized in situ in molten salt as a precursor, a uniform and dense coating with a thickness of approximately 50 μm and good adhesion to the substrate was obtained at an optimized deposition voltage of 1.0 V. The coating exhibited excellent mechanical properties, with its nano-hardness and elastic modulus reaching as high as 35.8 and 510 GPa, respectively, and a critical adhesion load with the substrate of 10.8 N. This technique demonstrated high efficiency, with an average deposition rate of up to 0.865 μm/min. High-temperature oxidation tests revealed that the coating forms a ZrO2–B2O3 composite oxide layer above 973 K, effectively blocking oxygen ingress. The coating continued to provide effective protection for the substrate after isothermal oxidation at 1173 K in an air atmosphere for 5 h. This research confirms that MS-EPD is an efficient, feasible, and promising technique for preparing high-performance anti-oxidation coatings on C/C composites.