Fabrication of Ti₂AIC by hot pressing of Ti, TiC, Al and active carbon powder mixtures

Abstract

Polycrystalline Ti₂AlC samples were synthesized by hot pressing of Ti, Al, TiC and active carbon powder mixtures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used for phase identification and microstructure evaluation. No other phase except Ti₂AlC was detected in samples synthesized by hot pressing of the 0.5TiC/1.5Ti/1.0Al/0.5C powder mixtures at 1400°C for 1 and 3 h under a pressure of 30 MPa. The densities of these two samples were 96.1 and 98% of the theoretical value of pure Ti₂AlC, respectively. The reason that the densities of these two samples were lower than the theoretical density of pure Ti₂AlC is that pore existed in these two samples. At lower temperature of 1300°C, the speed of the reaction forming Ti₂AlC was slow. While at higher temperature of 1500°C, Ti₂AlC transformed to Ti₃AlC₂. So these two temperatures are not suitable for the fabrication of Ti₂AlC.