Formation of the metastable FCC phase by ball milling and annealing of titanium–stearic acid powder

• Metstable FCC phase formed upon sintering of milled powder at 1200 °C.
• Metastable phases are attributed to milling and stearic acid.
• Optical microstructure showed the needle and lath type structure.
• Synthesized nonstoichiometric TiCx phase segregated along the grain boundaries.
• FCC phase induced by WQ has 4.102 Å lattice parameter.

Ball milling of titanium mixed stearic acid yields the formation of the metastable face centred cubic phase upon sintering and water quenching at 1200 °C. Structural transformation was traced by the X-ray diffraction technique. Phase transformations were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry in flowing argon gas. The optical microstructure illustrated the needle and lath type morphology attributable to nonstoichiometric titanium hydride phase. In addition, the microstructure monitored by the scanning electron microscopy show the nonstoichiometric titanium carbide phase segregating along the grain boundaries. As a result, high average hardness value of 654 and 670 Vickers hardness was measured for sintered and quenched 15 h milled titanium–stearic acid.

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