Materials Chemistry and Physics, Vol.162, 216-221, 2015
Fabrication of Ti3SiC2-based composites from titania-silica raw material
We herein describe a two-step technique for fabrication of Ti3SiC2-TiC-SiC ceramic composites from leucoxene concentrate (LC). The proposed method involves vacuum carbothermal reduction of LC followed by hot pressing at 1450-1650 degrees C under 6.7 MPa. In the carbothermal stage, LC is converted into a weakly sintered product containing 68 vol.% Ti3SiC2, 31 vol.% TiC, and 1 vol.% SiC. In the next stage, this product is mixed with 5 vol.% elemental silicon and hot-pressed to fabricate a nearly fully dense composite. Flexural strength and fracture toughness of the sample prepared at 1650 degrees C reached 482 MPa and 5.39 MPa m(1/2), respectively. The effects of preparation conditions on phase composition and characteristics of the ceramic composites are discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.