Strong and thermostable hydrothermal carbon coated 3D needled carbon fiber reinforced silicon-boron carbonitride composites with broadband and tunable high-performance microwave absorption

Lingyu Yang; Lianhua Yin; Changqing Hong; Shun Dong; Chen Liu; Xinghong Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.08.030

Strong and thermostable hydrothermal carbon coated 3D needled carbon fiber reinforced silicon-boron carbonitride composites with broadband and tunable high-performance microwave absorption

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Jan 15;582(Pt A):270-282. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.08.030. Epub 2020 Aug 10.

Authors

Lingyu Yang¹, Lianhua Yin², Changqing Hong¹, Shun Dong³, Chen Liu⁴, Xinghong Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology for National Defence on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
² Beijing Institute of Astronautical Systems Engineering, Beijing 100076, PR China.
³ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology for National Defence on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: dongshun@hit.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Space Environment and Physical Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: liuchen2016@hit.edu.cn.

PMID: 32823128
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.08.030

Abstract

Excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing materials with high-temperature stable and superior mechanical properties are among the most promising candidates for practical application. Here, novel hydrothermal carbon coated three-dimensional (3D) needled carbon fiber reinforced silicon-boron carbonitride (HC-CF/SiBCN) composites with a hierarchical A (CF)/B (HC)/C (SiBCN) structure were constructed and prepared for the first time by combining hydrothermal transformation and precursor infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) process. The thickness of the HC coating controlled by the glucose concentration played a crucial role in tailoring the EMW capacity of the composite. The incorporation of SiBCN could not only effectively improve the oxidation resistance but also actively enhance the mechanical properties of the HC coated CF structure. Compared to the weak high-temperature oxidation resistance and mechanical properties of pristine 3D needled CF felt, the composites after the introduction of HC and SiBCN were thermostable in air atmosphere beyond 1000 °C to about above 70% weight retention, and the maximum flexural and compression strength of the composites could reach to 23.51 ± 1.37 and 12.22 ± 1.12 MPa, respectively. A substantial enhancement of EMW absorption ability was achieved through incorporation of HC and SiBCN, which could be attributed to the matched characteristic impedance and enhanced loss ability, whose optimization EMW absorption performance was the minimum reflection loss (RL_min) of -52.08 dB and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 7.64 GHz for the composite obtained by two PIP cycles with 24 wt% glucose solution, demonstrating that the HC-CF/SiBCN composites with high-temperature stable, excellent mechanical and superior EMW absorption properties could be considered as a promising candidate for the applications in harsh environments.

Keywords: Carbon fiber; EMW absorption; High-temperature oxidation resistance; Hydrothermal carbon; Mechanical; SiBCN.