On the wettability diversity of C/SiC surface: Comparison of the ground C/SiC surface and ablated C/SiC surface from three aspects

Abstract The coefficient of thermal conductivity was influenced by the wetting state of material. The wetting state usually depends on the surface wettability. C/SiC is a promising ceramic composites with multi-components. The wettability of C/SiC composites is hard to resort to the classical wetting theory directly. So far, few investigations focused on C/SiC surface wettability diversity after different material removal processes. In this investigation, comparative studies of surface wettability of ground C/SiC surface and laser-ablated C/SiC surface were carried out through apparent contact angle (APCA) measurements. The results showed that water droplets easily reached stable state on ground C/SiC surface; while the water droplets rappidly penetrated into the laser–ablated C/SiC surface. In order to find out the reason for wettability distinctions between the ground C/SiC surface and the laser–ablated C/SiC surface, comparative studies on the surface micro-structure, surface C–O–Si distribution, and surface C–O–Si weight percentage were carried out. The results showed that (1) A large number of micro cracks in the fuzzy pattern layer over laser-ablated C/SiC surfaces easily destoried the surface tension of water droplets, while only a few cracks existed over the ground C/SiC surfaces. (2) Chemical components (C, O, Si) were non-uniformly distributed on ground C/SiC surfaces, while the chemical components (C, O, Si) were uniformly distributed on laser-ablated C/SiC surfaces. (3) The carbon weight percentage on ground C/SiC surfaces were higher than that on laser-ablated C/SiC surfaces. All these made an essential contribution to the surface wettability diversity of C/SiC surface. Although more investigations about the quantitative influence of surface topography and surface chemical composition on composites wettability are still needed, the conslusion can be used in application: the wettability of C/SiC surface can be controlled by different material removal process without individual following up surface modification process.