Study on reaction productions and morphology of Al-Ti-C-SiC master alloy in self-propagating high temperature synthesis

Abstract

Al-Ti-C-SiC master alloys were prepared by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis method with the aluminum powder, titanium powder, graphite powder and nano-SiC powder. The reaction productions and morphology of Al-Ti-C-SiC master alloy were systematically investigated. The results show that with the addition of SiC nano-particles, the reaction sequence of self-propagation synthesis of Al-Ti-C alloy was changed. During the reaction, the SiC nano-particles reacts with the titanium powder, which leads to an increase amounts of the TiC particles, In the self-propagation products of Al-Ti-C-SiC system, the size of TiC particles decreases first and then increases with the increase of SiC nano-particles mass fraction. When the mass fraction of SiC nano-particles is 10%, the size of TiC particles becomes nanometre, which size reach 100nm-200nm. When the mass fraction of SiC nano-particles is more than 10%, SiC nano-particles can be found in the master alloy product.