Ablation behavior of (TiZrHfNbTa)C high-entropy ceramics with the addition of SiC secondary under an oxyacetylene flame

The ablation behavior of high-entropy ceramics (HECs) was investigated in this study using an oxyacetylene flame at 2000 °C. Spark plasma sintering was used to construct a dense HEC (TiZrHfNbTa)C with a 20 vol% of SiC addition (HEC-20SiC). The densification of HEC-20SiC can be improved to a certain extent by adding SiC particles, increasing the hardness of HEC-20SiC to up to 24.6 GPa, and the crack deflection observed through the addition of SiC particles were considered to be the strengthening and toughening mechanisms. After ablation, Hf 6 Ta 2 O 17 , Ti 5.1 Ta 4.9 O 20 , Nb 2 Zr 6 O 17 , TaZr 2.75 O 8 , and SiO 2 can be detected on an ablated surface and HEC-20SiC possesses the minimum mass ablation rate (−1.9 mg s −1 ) and line ablation rate (2.1 μm s −1 ) among the comparative ceramics. On the one hand, the SiC phase forms gaseous CO, CO 2 , and SiO as well as viscous SiO 2 during ablation and some part of the heat can be dissipated by the evaporation of gaseous CO, CO 2 , and SiO; further, pore defects can be healed by viscous SiO 2 , thus inhibiting the diffusion of reactive oxygen species. On the other hand, the HEC phase with a lattice-distortion caused by single-phase solid-solution can effectively inhibit the invasion of reactive oxygen species and the outward migration of metal atoms. The invasion rate of reactive oxygen is considered to be the main step during HEC-20SiC ablation, and it is believed that higher principal component HECs can improve ablation performance even further.