Microstructure changes in TiB2-Cu nanocomposite under sintering

Abstract

Stability and growth of nanoparticulate reinforcements in metal matrix composites during heating are widely studied for dispersion-strengthened alloys, which contain several volume percent of reinforcing phase. When high volume content of nanoparticles distributed within a matrix is concerned results of particles aggregation and growth as well as crystallization mechanisms are not so evident. In this work microstructural evolution under sintering in metal-matrix composite TiB2-Cu with high volume content (up to 57%) of titanium diboride nanoparticles 30-50 nm in size was investigated. The nanocomposite powders were produced through synthetic method combining preliminary mechanical treatment of initial powder mixtures in high-energy ball mill, self-propagating exothermic reaction and subsequent mechanical treatment of the product. We focused on microstructure changes in TiB2-Cu nanocomposite consolidated by Spark-Plasma Sintering and conventional sintering and showed that in the former case fine-grained skeleton of titanium diboride is formed with connectivity between particles well established. In the latter case behavior of nanoparticles is surprising: at low temperatures fiber-like structures are formed while increasing temperature causes appearance of faceted crystals. These unusual results allow us to propose the direct involvement of nanoparticles in the processes of crystallization by moving as a whole in the matrix.