Zonal synergistic protection behavior of C_f–HfC–HfB₂–SiC composites under 2600–2700 °C long-duration plasma ablation

Carbon fiber–reinforced ultra-high-temperature ceramic matrix composites (C_f/UHTCs) suffer from limited structural continuity, regional protection mismatch, and unstable failure mechanisms in oxidative plasma ablation environments above 2500 °C, where single-phase UHTC systems (e.g., HfC or HfB₂) fail to maintain wide-temperature synergistic stability. To address this ablation-limit imbalance, a dual-UHTC-phase C_f–HfC–HfB₂–SiC composite is designed, achieving a wide-temperature synergistic protection effect. The composite exhibits an ultra-low linear ablation rate of 1.88 × 10⁻⁴ mm/s at 2600 °C for 1500 s, increasing only slightly to 2.32 × 10^-4 mm/s at 2700 °C. Structural analyses reveal a stable triple-layer oxidation architecture consisting of a dense HfO₂ outer layer, an HfO₂–SiO₂ intermediate layer, and a porous inner buffer layer with spatially partitioned responses. First-principles calculations show that the HfC–HfB₂ interface facilitates the formation of a continuous oxygen coordination network, supporting the evolution of a continuous protective oxide scale. These findings suggest a zonal synergistic protection behavior associated with the cooperative evolution of different ablation regions under non-uniform ultra-high-temperature environments.