Nano-ceramics Ti3SiC2 Max phase reinforced single walled carbon nanotubes by spark plasma sintering

Abstract

Ceramics titanium silicon carbide Ti3SiC2 Max phase was rapidly synthesised and simultaneously consolidated by spark plasma sintering at which the extensive volume expansion occurred as a function of the temperature from ball milled SiC/Ti/C powders with Ti/SiC ratio of 3:1:2. The XRD patterns results were confirmed by FESEM observations and the EDAX analyses. The 3Ti+1.2SiC+0.8C nano-ceramics were processed from 3Ti+1.2SiC+0.8C/SWCNTs powders using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at temperatures of 1100, 1200 and 1300 oC with diting of SWCNTs from 0.0 to 1.0 wt% SWCNTs/Ti3SiC2 nanocomposite. The effects of SWCNTs addition on phases, microstructure and hardness of the nanocomposite were investigated. The best product contained 1.0 wt% CNTs/ Ti3SiC2/TiC which was sintered at 1300 °C, 60 MPa for 10 min The phase composition of the product could be tailored by adjusting the process parameters. The anisotropic hardness was observed in respect to the textured product.