Densification mechanism of chemical vapor infiltration technology for carbon/carbon composites

Carbon/carbon composites were fabricated using pressure-gradient chemical vapor infiltration(CVI) technology with propane (C3H6) as the carbon precursor gas and nitrogen (N2) as the carrier gas. The chemical process of deposition of pyrolytic carbon was deduced by analyzing the component of molecules in gas phase and observing the microstructure of deposition carbon. The results show that the process of deposition starts from the breakdown of C—C single bond of propene (C3H6), and forms two kinds of active groups in the heterogeneous gas phase reaction. Afterwards, these active groups form many stable bigger molecules and deposit on carbon fiber surface. At the same time, hydrogen atoms of the bigger molecules absorbed on carbon fiber surface are eliminated and the solid pyrolytic carbon matrix is formed in the heterogeneous reaction process.