Carbon composite materials comprising particles of metal carbides dispersed therein and method for producing the same

Abstract

This invention provides carbon composite materials, which comprise metal carbide particles, at least the particle surfaces or the entirety of which are metal carbides, synthesized in situ from a metal source, i.e., at least one member selected from the group comprising metal particles, metal oxide particles, and composite metal oxide particles, and a carbon source, i.e., a thermosetting resin, dispersed in a carbon, carbon fiber, or carbon / carbon fiber matrix, and contain no free metal particles. This invention also provides a method for producing such composite carbon materials, which enables the production of carbon composite materials having a high coefficient of friction, high thermostability, and abrasion resistance.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to carbon composite materials having a high coefficient of friction, high thermostability, and abrasion resistance. Also, the present invention relates to a method for producing such carbon composite materials. BACKGROUND ART [0002] Carbon materials are combined with carbon fibers to prepare composite materials. Such process is known to be effective in order to improve the performance of such materials. For example, carbon fiber / carbon composite materials comprising high-strength carbon fibers are known as CC composite materials. Such materials are superior in specific strength (i.e., strength / density) to conventional metal materials, and thus, the applications of such composite materials are being expanded in various fields. For example, such CC composite materials are used for brake pad materials of automobiles or aircraft. [0003] A variety of techniques for preparing reinforced carbon composite materials have been attempted via...

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Benefits of technology

[0009] It is an object of the present invention to provide carbon composite materials having a high coefficient of friction, high thermostability, and abrasion resistance, and to provide a method for producing such carbon composite materials.

[0021] Since the slurry mixture is a solution comprising metal oxide particles and a dispersant incorporated in a phenol resin solution, use of a dispersant enables homogeneous dispersion of metal oxides in phenol resin. Homogeneous dispersion of metal oxides allows carbon to be present in an amount required for the reaction, which in turn realizes effective reactions.

[0027] The carbon composite materials according to the present invention have properties such as a high coefficient of friction, high thermostability, abrasion resistance, and lightness in weight.

Problems solved by technology

According to the method disclosed in JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-130537A (1999), powdery metal oxides are mixed with powdery carbon, and the dispersibility of the generated metal oxides is not sufficient.

Thus, the amount of carbon provided in the vicinity of metal oxides was not sufficient, and the reaction between metal oxides and carbon was not sufficiently carried out.

Accordingly, unreacted silicon metals disadvantageously remained as free silicon metals.

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