Chemical Vapor Infiltration of Rhenium

Abstract

Abstract Rhenium is of interest as a matrix material and fiber coating for high‐temperature structural composites. Despite prior success in the CVD of rhenium, there have been no studies on the chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) of this metal. The current work investigates the CVI of rhenium via the pyrolytic decomposition of ReCl 5 , prepared both by chlorination of rhenium metal and the sublimation of ReCl 5 . The feasibility of the CVI of rhenium was demonstrated for both methods. Statistical analyses showed that the amount of rhenium deposited increased for higher chlorine flow rates and lower preform temperatures, 750 °C vs. 900 °C, for the chlorination and sublimation processes, respectively.