Scalable, Infiltration-Free Ceramic Matrix Composite (SIF-CMC) manufacturing for Molten Salt Receiver: Investigation of particle-loaded preceramic resin

Conference · Tue Sep 27 04:00:00 EDT 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1897211· OSTI ID:1897211

Wei, Junhua; Iftime, Gabriel; Chintapalli, Mahati; Llanes, Luana; Thurkral, Anish; Randy, Rahul; Bhattacharyya, Koyel

Due to their unique combination of high temperature, corrosion resistance, and toughness, Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC) are the optimal materials to be used in the next generation of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), which will operate at working temperatures up to 800 °C. However, today, CMC is too costly to be used in CSP applications due to its complex manufacturing process based on repeated infiltration-pyrolysis cycles. To solve this issue, PARC is developing a scalable, infiltration-free method (SIF) to manufacture CMC, which can reduce the production cost, increase batch consistency, and leverage all of the intrinsic advantages of current CMCs. The key to the SIF method is using a flowable preceramic resin with high loading of functional components. The formulation impregnates the fiber during curing and leads to high-density, low-shrinkage parts upon pyrolysis. In this paper, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept of the SIF process and report the relationships between key process parameters in the manufacturing process: functional material loading in the resin vs. resin’s flowability and morphology changes upon pyrolysis.

• Research Organization: PARC
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: EE0009808
• OSTI ID: 1897211
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ceramic matrix composite
concentrated solar power