Oxidation Resistance, Ablation Resistance, and Ablation Mechanism of HfC–B4C-Modified Carbon Fiber/Boron Phenolic Resin Ceramizable Composites

Thermal protection materials with excellent performance are critical for hypersonic vehicles. Carbon fiber/phenolic resin composites (Cf/Ph) have been widely used as thermal protection materials due to their high specific strength and ease of processing. However, oxidative failure limits the extensive applications of Cf/Ph in harsh environments. In this paper, a novel hafnium carbide (HfC) and boron carbide (B4C)-modified Cf/Ph was fabricated via an impregnating and compression molding route. The synergistic effect of HfC and B4C on the thermal stability, flexural strength, microstructure, and phase evolution of the ceramizable composite was studied. The resulting ceramizable composites exhibited excellent resistance to oxidative corrosion and ablation behavior. The residual yield at 1400 °C and the flexural strength after heat treatment at 1600 °C for 20 min were 46% and 54.65 MPa, respectively, with an increase of 79.59% in flexural strength compared to that of the composites without ceramizable fillers. The linear ablation rate (LAR) and mass ablation rate (MAR) under a heat flux density of 4.2 MW/m2 for the 20 s were as low as −8.33 × 10−3 mm/s and 3.08 × 10−2 g/s. The ablation mechanism was further revealed. A dense B–C–N–O–Hf ceramic layer was constructed in situ as an efficient thermal protection barrier, significantly reducing the corrosion of the carbon fibers.