Capillary infiltration of liquid silicon in carbon nanotubes: A molecular dynamics simulation

KY Zhang and RD Zhao and YQ Yang and LC Yin and SF Tang, JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 144, 219-223 (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2022.10.033

In this work, by simplifying the nanopores of porous C/C preform with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) or double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs), the infiltration of liquid Si in the SWCNTs and DWCNTs was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. As a result, a quantitative relationship between tube diameter and liquid Si infiltration rate was established, which has been successfully applied to reproduce the available experiment result. The obtained relationship indicates that the capillary infiltration of liquid Si at the nanoscale still conforms to the classic Lucas-Washburn law, however, the liquid Si infiltration quickly stops in small tubes with a diameter of less than 3 nm due to an obvious contraction of the tube wall. This work may provide theoretical guidance for pore structure optimization of porous C/C preform to fabricate high-density C/SiC composites.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Return to Publications page