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Transition metal carbides are promising candidates for thermal protection materials due to their high melting points and excellent mechanical properties. However, the relatively high thermal conductivity is still a major obstacle to its application in an ultra-high-temperature insulation system. In this work, the low thermal conductivity of dense (TiZrHfVNbTa)Cx (x = 0.6–1) high-entropy carbides has been realized by adjusting the carbon stoichiometry. The thermal conductivity gradually decreases from 10.6 W·m−1·K−1 at room temperature to 6.4 W·m−1·K−1 with carbon vacancies increasing. Due to enhanced scattering of phonons and electrons by the carbon vacancies, nearly full-dense (97.9%) (TiZrHfVNbTa)C0.6 possesses low thermal conductivity of 6.4 W·m−1·K−1, thermal diffusivity of 2.3 mm2·s−1, as well as electrical resistivity of 165.5 μΩ·cm. The thermal conductivity of (TiZrHfVNbTa)C0.6 is lower than that of other quaternary and quinary high-entropy carbide ceramics, even if taking the difference of porosity into account in some cases, which is mainly attributed to compositional complexity and carbon vacancies. This provides a promising route to reduce the thermal conductivity of high-entropy carbides by increasing the number of metallic elements and carbon vacancies.


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Low thermal conductivity of dense (TiZrHfVNbTa)Cx high-entropy carbides by tailoring carbon stoichiometry

Show Author's information Lei CHENa,b( )Wen ZHANGa,bWenyu LUa,bBoxin WEIcSijia HUOa,bYujin WANGa,b( )Yu ZHOUa,b
Institute for Advanced Ceramics, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural–Functional Integration Materials & Green Manufacturing Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Abstract

Transition metal carbides are promising candidates for thermal protection materials due to their high melting points and excellent mechanical properties. However, the relatively high thermal conductivity is still a major obstacle to its application in an ultra-high-temperature insulation system. In this work, the low thermal conductivity of dense (TiZrHfVNbTa)Cx (x = 0.6–1) high-entropy carbides has been realized by adjusting the carbon stoichiometry. The thermal conductivity gradually decreases from 10.6 W·m−1·K−1 at room temperature to 6.4 W·m−1·K−1 with carbon vacancies increasing. Due to enhanced scattering of phonons and electrons by the carbon vacancies, nearly full-dense (97.9%) (TiZrHfVNbTa)C0.6 possesses low thermal conductivity of 6.4 W·m−1·K−1, thermal diffusivity of 2.3 mm2·s−1, as well as electrical resistivity of 165.5 μΩ·cm. The thermal conductivity of (TiZrHfVNbTa)C0.6 is lower than that of other quaternary and quinary high-entropy carbide ceramics, even if taking the difference of porosity into account in some cases, which is mainly attributed to compositional complexity and carbon vacancies. This provides a promising route to reduce the thermal conductivity of high-entropy carbides by increasing the number of metallic elements and carbon vacancies.

Keywords: thermal conductivity, high-entropy carbides, compositional complexity, carbon vacancies

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Publication history

Received: 21 July 2022
Revised: 03 September 2022
Accepted: 23 September 2022
Published: 02 December 2022
Issue date: January 2023

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© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52032002 and 51972081), National Safety Academic Foundation (No. U2130103), Science and Technology on Particle Transport and Separation Laboratory, and Heilongjiang Touyan Team Program.

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