SBIR Phase I: Designing an Immune System Response Into High-Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composite Materials (CMC)

这项小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在评估一种新型碳化硅（SiC）纤维相间纳米涂层，该涂层可作为高温陶瓷基复合材料（cmc）暴露于氧化环境中的仿生免疫系统。高温cmc必须能够承受氧化和热机械的要求，即使是最先进的高温合金也无法承受。相间涂层在实现这些目标方面起着至关重要的作用。间相涂层只占CMC质量的一小部分，但却对CMC的大部分优异性能负责。该涂层将纤维与基体隔离，并相互隔离，通过调节纤维与基体之间的载荷传递来控制失效机制，并作为环境屏障涂层（EBC）保护承载纤维。从本质上讲，界面涂层首先是一种微机械系统，用于减少故障、防止氧化和轻微的自愈。第一阶段的工作旨在增强这些功能，并为其添加一种能够局部检测氧气入侵的材料“免疫反应”，随后自动改变成分以抵抗进一步的氧气入侵，最后形成“疤痕组织”，使该区域更能抵抗未来的氧化。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将首先体现在高温陶瓷基复合材料部件的安全性和可靠性方面，例如用于喷气发动机，燃气轮机或核电站。纳米涂层技术是由一种新的纤维制造平台技术实现的，该技术允许一个过程完成目前需要两个单独的、非常昂贵的过程。因此，碳化硅（SiC）纤维增强cmc的成本可以降低，同时大幅提高质量。事实上，所提出的技术最终使我们的目标市场引入价格合理的高品质SiC纤维成为可能。这些市场包括军事和航空航天（涡轮机械、火箭、先进结构）、汽车、能源和其他需要具有特殊强度、刚度、耐热性和/或耐化学性的先进材料的行业。即使不考虑这种涂层，仅SiC纤维本身就代表着一个具有巨大潜力的快速增长市场，其总规模超过20亿美元。使所提出的界面涂层技术的能源足迹是竞争方法的1/1000，并且产生的相关废物和排放也很小。这提供了巨大的成本优势，以及质量和性能的显著提高。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is designed to evaluate a novel interphase nanocoating designed for Silicon Carbide (SiC) fibers, which is intended to behave as a biomimetic immune system for high-temperature Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) exposed to an oxidizing environment. High-temperature CMCs must survive oxidative and thermomechanical requirements that even the most advanced superalloys cannot withstand. Interphase coatings play a critical role in achieving these objectives. Interphase coatings represent a tiny fraction of the mass of a CMC, but are responsible for most of their outstanding properties. The coatings isolate fibers from the matrix and from each other, control failure mechanisms by regulating load transfer between fiber and matrix, and serve as an Environmental Barrier Coating (EBC) to protect the load-bearing fibers. In essence, an interphase coating is first and foremost a micromechanical system engineered for failure mitigation, oxidation prevention, and a slight self-healing. This Phase I effort aims to enhance these functions and add to them a material "immune response" capable of local detection of oxygen intrusion, followed by automatic compositional changes which resist further oxygen ingress, and finally the creation of "scar tissue" that leaves the area more resistant to future oxidation. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will first be felt in terms of enhanced safety and reliability of high-temperature Ceramic Matrix Composite components used, for example, in jet engines, gas turbines, or nuclear power plants. The proposed nanocoating technology is made possible by a new fiber manufacturing platform technology, which allows a single process to accomplish what currently requires two separate, very expensive, processes. The cost of Silicon Carbide (SiC) fiber-reinforced CMCs can therefore be reduced while delivering drastically improved quality. Indeed, the proposed technology finally makes possible the introduction of affordable high-quality SiC fibers to our target markets. These markets include military and aerospace (turbo machinery, rockets, advanced structures), automobile, energy and other industries that require advanced materials with exceptional strength, stiffness, heat resistance, and/ or chemical resistance. SiC fibers alone, even without considering this coating, represent a fast-growing market with great potential, the collective size of which exceeds $2 billion. The technology enabling the proposed interphase coating has an energy footprint that is 1/1000th that of competing methods and which produces a fraction of the associated waste and emissions as well. This provides a huge cost advantage as well as a dramatic improvement in quality and performance.