Kinetics of chemical vapor infiltration of carbon nanofiber-reinforced carbon/carbon composites

Preforms containing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were fabricated by spreading layers of carbon cloth, and infiltrated by using the technique of isothermal chemical vapor infiltration (ICVI) at the temperature of 1100 °C under the total pressure of 1 kPa and with the flow of the mixture of propane/nitrogen in a ratio of 13:1. The infiltration rates increased with the rising of CNF content, and after 580 h of infiltration, the achievable degree of pore filling was the highest when the CNF content was 5 wt.%, but the composite could not be densified efficiently as the CNF content ranged from 10 to 20 wt.%. An analysis of the results, based on the effective diffusion coefficient and on the in-pore deposition rates, shows that the CNFs, due to their higher aspect ratio, accelerate overgrowth at pore entrances and thus lead to incomplete pore filling.