Sugar‐Derived Nanocrystalline Graphite Matrix C/C Composites with Excellent Ablative Resistance at 3000 °C

Abstract Sugars are renewable resources essential to human life, but they are rarely used as raw materials for the industrial production of carbon‐based materials, especially for the preparation of carbon fiber‐reinforced carbon‐matrix (C/C) composites, which are extremely useful for the semiconductor and aerospace sectors. Herein, a method utilizing sugar‐derived carbon to replace petrochemicals as dense matrix to preparing C/C composites is reported. The matrix from sugar‐derived C/C (S–C/C) composites has a nanocrystalline graphite structure that is highly thermally stable and effectively bonded to the carbon fibers. The mechanical properties of the S–C/C composite are comparable to those prepared from petrochemical sources; significantly, it exhibits a linear ablation rate of 0.03 mm s −1 after 200 s of ablation at 3000 °C in 10 MW m −2 heat flux. This new class of S–C/C is promising for use in a broad range of fields, ranging from semiconductor to aerospace.