Low-temperature fabrication of high purity Ti_3SiC_2

摘要

In this study, we fabricated high purity Ti_3SiC_2 ceramic by mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS), and investigated the effect of trace amount of Al on these processes. Our results show that addition of proper amount of Al significantly increases the purity of Ti_3SiC_2 in the MA and subsequent SPS products, and remarkably reduces the sintering temperature for Ti_3SiC_2. Ti_3SiC_2 sintered compact with a purity of 96.5 wt percent was obtained by 10 h of MA and subsequent SPS from a starting mixture composed of n(Ti):n(Si):n(Al):n(c) = 3:1:0.2:2 at 850 deg C. At 1100 deg C, Ti_3SiC_2 with a purity of 99.3 wt percent and a relative density of 98.9 percent was obtained.