Synthesis of nanocrystalline titanium nitride by microwave plasma technique

Abstract

Nano-crystalline titanium nitride was prepared by the microwave plasma synthesis technique by optimizing microwave process parameters such as power, gas flow rate and pressure based on the stable plasma. Synthesized nanocrystalline titanium nitride was characterized to determine the structural properties such as nanocrystallinity, particle size, morphology, surface area and chemical elemental analysis using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, micromeritics ASAP 2020 and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy respectively. The results showed that synthesized titanium nitride nano-powders were crystalline, spherical in shape, the size in the range of 20–100 nm, the surface area of the nanocrystalline to be 49 m2/g and good functional properties with 90–98% purity.