Abstract
The effect of aluminum on synthesis of Ti3SiC2 by spark plasma sintering (SPS) from elemental powders was investigated in this paper. X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy photographs of samples with different content of aluminum indicated that proper addition of aluminum both favored the formation and accelerated the crystal growth of Ti3SiC2. The process parameters in the sintering course revealed that addition of aluminum decreased the temperature for the synthesis reaction of Ti3SiC2. Polycrystalline bulk Ti3SiC2 material with high purity and density could be fabricated by spark plasma sintering from the elemental powder mixture with starting composition of Ti3Si1−xAlxC2, where x = 0.05–0.2. SEM photographs showed Ti3SiC2 synthesized from elemental powders was in plane-shape with a size of about 10–20 µm in the elongated dimension. Solid solution of aluminum decreased the thermal stability of Ti3SiC2 and made the temperature at which Ti3SiC2 decomposed be as low as 1300°C.
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