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2024 00:07 A review of the research progress on the interface between oxide fiber and oxide ceramic matrix - ScienceDirect

Ceramics International
Volume 47, Issue 5, 1 March 2021, Pages 5896-5908

Review article

A review of the research progress on the

interface between oxide fiber and oxide
ceramic matrix
Zhongkai Xu a, Xiaohong Sun a , Kunzhou Xiong a b, Zhe Chen a, Yunpeng Shang a b,
Ruisong Guo a, Shu Cai a, Chunming Zheng b

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Abstract

Oxide ceramics have excellent high temperature performance, superior thermal and
chemical stability, which can be used in high temperature oxidizing environments, while
oxide ceramics generally have low toughness and are prone to catastrophic damage...
Oxide ceramics can be reinforced by high performance ceramic fibers to improve the
fracture strength and fracture toughness, thus expanding its application in high-
temperature components such as aero-engine combustion chambers and tail nozzles.
The interface between fiber and matrix is an important factor that determines the
performance of the composites. By tailoring the interface, the energy dissipation
mechanisms such as fiber debonding and fiber pull-out can be brought into play to avoid
the catastrophic damage of the composites. This review paper summarizes the recent
research progress of the oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites interface. The
mechanical properties of the interface and the design principles of the interface
engineering are discussed, and types of interfaces and coating preparation methods are
reviewed.

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Introduction

Ceramic materials have excellent performances such as high operating temperature

(1100 °C ~ 1650 °C) and low density (2.5–3.3 g/cm3). However, the toughness of ceramic
materials is poor and they are prone to catastrophic damage, which limits their wide
applications [[1], [2], [3]]. Oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites have remarkable
properties such as high-temperature resistance, superior specific strength, high specific
modulus and high corrosion resistance [4]. In particular, the introduction of high-
efficiency toughening phase continuous ceramic fibers has changed the inherent
brittleness of ceramic matrix materials [[5], [6], [7]]. It has attracted considerable
attention to the applications in the following area: aerospace engine hot-end
components, ground gas turbines, thermal structural components of high-speed aircraft
and thermal protection systems, etc [[8], [9], [10]].

Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are mainly divided into non-oxide-based composites
and oxide-based composites. As we all know, the antioxidant capacity of non-oxides is
relatively poor [11]. Their oxidation rate around 1000 °C is very high and they cannot
meet the requirements of long-term work in the high-temperature oxidation
environments. C, TiC, B4C and BN all fall into this category of non-oxides, of which carbon
has the worst antioxidant [9]. On the other hand, silicon-based non-oxides, such as SiC,
Si3N4 and Mo2Si, can form a dense SiO2 protective film on the surface when the oxygen
partial pressure of the system is high. The protective film helps insulate the silicon-based
materials from the oxidizing environment [12,13]. Therefore, the oxidation resistance of
the silicon-based non-oxide composites is superior to other non-oxide composites [9].
However, because of the thermal mismatch caused by inconsistent thermal expansion
coefficients of the matrix, fibers and interfaces in silicon-based non-oxide composites,
generates cracks and cracks of SiO2 film resulting in oxidation. This is the main reason for
the poor oxidation resistance of silicon-based non-oxide composites [14,15]. The oxide
ceramics have superior high-temperature performance and high corrosion resistance
[16,17]. Therefore, oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites have outstanding anti-
oxidation properties and can work in high-temperature oxidation environments for a
long time [18,19]. When the oxide matrix is reinforced with an oxide fiber, a strong
fiber/matrix interface may be formed due to the strong interface reaction between the
oxide fiber and the oxide matrix, which will hinder the debonding of the oxide fiber and
the oxide matrix [20]. In addition, the interdiffusion between the oxide fiber and the
oxide matrix under the high-temperature oxidation environment and the influence of
the oxidation environment will degrade the performance of fiber [[21], [22], [23]]. Under
these circumstances, the toughness of the composites has not been greatly improved
compared to monolithic oxide ceramics. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a barrier

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20.10.2024 00:07 A review of the research progress on the interface between oxide fiber and oxide ceramic matrix - ScienceDirect

layer to hinder the chemical interaction between the oxide fiber and the oxide matrix
[21,24].

Tailoring the interface between the fiber and the matrix can introduce energy loss
mechanisms such as crack deflection, fiber debonding, fiber pull-out and fiber bridging,
thereby improving the toughness of the composites [25,26]. A common method for
tailoring the interface is to prepare a coating on the surface of fibers [27,28]. The
interface layer is crucial to ceramic matrix composites. Several studies have shown that
composites with strong interface bonding have small fracture strain and neat fracture
surface, while composites with weak interface have low modulus and high strength,
large fracture strain, and long fiber pull-out [29]. It is obvious that the introduction of the
weak interface has played a positive role in strengthening and toughening, which
benefits from the debonding effect of the weak interface [[29], [30], [31], [32]].
Fiber/matrix interface debonding is an essential condition for the crack deflection, fiber
bridging and fiber pull-out [33]. Interfacial debonding can slow down the fiber stress
concentration and prevent the stress and energy from being concentrated locally in the
material so that the fracture of composites will not be catastrophic [27,34]. The research
progress of the oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites interface will be
summarized in the following sections. The properties of the oxide fibers and the oxide
ceramic matrices will be discussed, respectively, and the mechanical properties of the
interface will be analyzed from the aspects of the stress caused by the energy and
roughness at the interface. The properties of various interfaces and the preparation
methods of coatings will be introduced.

Section snippets

Fiber and matrix

The oxide fibers commercially available in CMCs are mainly alumina-based or

aluminosilicate (AS) fibers [9,35]. Table 1 summarizes the commercial oxide ceramic
fibers in CMCs. Alumina fibers have excellent high-temperature resistance. The
performance of the alumina fiber does not decrease in a high temperature environment
because the grain size of the fiber is relatively stable [36,37]. The alumina fibers can be
divided into several types, including Sapphire fibers from Saphikon, FP fibers from

Interface properties and mechanics

There are usually two ways for a solid material to consume energy under an applied
load: the deformation of the material and the formation of a new surface. The
deformation is often catastrophic for the application of materials, so the deformation of
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the material during use must be avoided. The energy should be consumed by generating
a new surface, that is, by generating tiny cracks in the material to avoid catastrophic
damage [9]. Increasing the propagation path of the crack to consume more

Principles of interface design

Interface debonding and fiber pull-out are closely related to the interface between fiber
and matrix [85]. Therefore, the characteristics of the interface are vital to the mechanical
properties of CMCs [6,25]. However, CMCs needs to be sintered at a high temperature, so
the reaction and the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the fiber and
the matrix make the composition and structure of the interface more complex [33]. The
ideal interface between the fiber and the matrix

Interface classification

There are many types of interfaces for oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites.
According to the different effects of interface properties on CMCs, interfaces are generally
divided into five types: (a) weak interface, (b) layered crystal interface, (c) multilayer
composite interface, (d) porous interface, and (e) escape interface [8,72,101]. Fig. 6 is a
schematic diagram of five kinds of interfaces. Fig. 7 shows the corresponding
microstructure examples of the above-mentioned five

Coating preparation methods

The common preparation methods of fiber coating include CVD [79,[129], [130], [131]],
chemical vapor infiltration (CVI), sol-gel [132,133] and precursor conversion [32]. Other
coating preparation methods such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) and electroplating
are less commonly used in CMCs. CVD is capable of depositing solid products on the
surface of fibers, by using gaseous substances to perform chemical reactions on the
heated surface of fibers. Carbon and boron nitride coatings are

Conclusions

Oxide fiber/oxide ceramic matrix composites have outstanding oxidation resistance,

outstanding structural stability and high-temperature mechanical properties. By
selecting the appropriate fiber and matrix and rational designing the surface between
fiber and matrix, a long service life of hot-end components at high temperatures can be
achieved. It is an ideal material for high-temperature oxidation environment.

The chemical interaction between oxide fiber and oxide matrix is easy to occur, which

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Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC
(51772205, 51572192, 51772208, 51472179), and the General Program of Municipal
Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (17JCYBJC17000, 17JCYBJC22700).

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