Rapid synthesis of Ti2AlC by spark plasma sintering technique

The dense polycrystalline Ti2AlC has been synthesized by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of the elemental Ti, Al and C powders with molar ratio of 2:1.2:1. The bulk material with the high-purity Ti2AlC was obtained when treated at 1100 °C, 30 MPa for 1 h. The density was 99.8% of the theoretical value. The obtained Ti2AlC had lattice parameters of a=0.3058±0.0002 nm and c=1.3649±0.0002 nm, respectively. And it had Vickers hardness of 4 GPa (at 1 N and 30 s).