Abstract
In this study, vanadium carbide (VC) and gas-atomized aluminum‑chromium‑silicon (AlCrSi) powders were used as novel hard materials to study the effect of their shrinkage rate, densification, phase evolution, and toughening on the sinterability and mechanical properties during synthesis and consolidation. The milled powders were sintered using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1600, 1400, 1300, and 1200 °C under 60 MPa depending on the AlCrSi content. A relative density of 98.3% was obtained for the VC-15 vol% AlCrSi (VC-15ACS), with improved sinterability (approximately 23%) compared with binderless VC due to rapid shrinkage during the bulk deformation. Microstructural and phase constitution analyses revealed that various intermetallic compounds (IMCs) such as AlxCry, CrxSiy, and AlxCrySiz were formed between the VC grain boundaries. These IMCs hindered crack propagation, thereby significantly improving the fracture toughness (up to 10.9 ± 0.2 MPa·m1/2) with a slight hardness loss (5.0% of carbide (hard phase)) due to induced crack bridging and deflection.
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