Effect of nickel introduced by electroplating on pyrocarbon deposition of carbon-fiber preforms

In order to improve the deposition rate and microstructure of pyrocarbon, nickel was introduced by electroplating on carbon fibers and used as a catalyst during the deposition of pyrocarbon at 1000 °C using methane as a precursor gas. The distribution of nickel catalyst and the microstructure of pyrocarbon were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman micro-spectrometry. Results show that nano-sized nickel particles could be well distributed on carbon fibers and the pyrocarbon deposited catalytically had a smaller d002 value and a higher graphitization degree compared with that without catalyst. In addition, the deposition rate of pyrocarbon in each hour was measured. The deposition rate of pyrocarbon in the first hour was more than 10 times when carbon cloth substrates were doped with nickel catalysts as compared to the pure carbon cloths. The pyrocarbon gained by rapid deposition may include two parts, which are generation directly on the nickel catalyst and formation with the carbon nanofibers as crystal nucleus.