Spark plasma sintering of Ti1−xAlxN nano-powders synthesized by high-energy ball milling. Issue 9 (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Radune, M.; Zinigrad, M.; Kalabukhov, S.; Sokol, M.; Chumanov, V.I.; Frage, N.
• Is Part Of: Ceramics international. Volume 42:Issue 9(2016)
• Page Start: 11077
• Page End: 11084
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: High-energy ball milling -- Nanostructured composites -- Nitrides -- Spark plasma sintering; Ceramics -- Periodicals; Céramique industrielle -- Périodiques; Ceramics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 666
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2016.04.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0272-8842

Abstract

Abstract: The present study focused on the fabrication of bulk materials from Ti1− x Al x N nano-powders using a spark plasma sintering (SPS) apparatus. Super-saturated Ti1− x Al x N solid solutions containing differing fractions of AlN (10, 20, 30 and 50 mol%) were synthesized by high-energy ball milling (HEBM) of pure nitrides. The complete dissolution of AlN in TiN was achieved after 100 h of milling. The milled powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy spectra imaging and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The crystalline size of the mechanically alloyed powders after 100 h of milling was about 12–14 nm. Ti1− x Al x N powders of various compositions were sintered by SPS under pressure of 63 MPa at 1673 K. Maximal hardness and bending strength values (610 MPa and 18.6 GPa, respectively) were obtained for composites containing 20 mol%AlN. Powder with 20% mole%AlN was consolidated under pressure of 500 MPa in the 1273–1423K temperature range by high pressure SPS (HPSPS). A fully dense nano-structured specimen, processed at 1423 K, displayed a Young modulus of 420 GPa, hardness of 20.5 GPa, bending strength of 670 MPa and fracture toughness of 7.1 MPa m 0.5 .