TiB2 effects on the AlMgB14–TiB2 ceramics structure and properties

Abstract

This paper studied titanium diboride (TiB2) effects on the structure and properties of AlMgB14 ceramics. AlMgB14–TiB2 samples with 30 wt% and 50 wt% TiB2 were obtained by the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. The addition of 30 wt% TiB2 did not significantly change the phase composition of the AlMgB14 ceramics, which remained comparable with the initial powder mixture composition. However, increasing the TiB2 amount to 50 wt% resulted in the MgAl2O4 spinel phase appearance. The addition of TiB2 significantly increased the microhardness of AlMgB14 from 7 GPa to 19.9 GPa, compared to the initial material, and also increased its flexural strength to 314 MPa.