Abstract
An ultra-high temperature ceramic, tantalum carbide, has received much attention for its favorable characteristics: a superior melting point and chemical compatibility with carbon and other carbides. One drawback is the high temperature erosion of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites. To address this drawback, we deposited TaC on C/C with silicon carbide as an intermediate layer. Prior to the TaC deposition, the $TaCl_5-C_3H_6-H_2$ system was thermodynamically analyzed with FactSage 6.2 and compared with the $TaCl_5-CH_4-H_2$ system. The results confirmed that the $TaCl_5-C_3H_6-H_2$ system had a more realistic cost and deposition efficiency than $TaCl_5-CH_4-H_2$. A dense and uniform TaC layer was successfully deposited under conditions of Ta/C = 0.5, $1200^{\circ}C$ and 100 torr. This study verified that the thermodynamic analysis is appropriate as a guide and prerequisite for carbide deposition.