Spark plasma sintering of the nonstoichiometric ultrafine-grained titanium carbides with nano superstructural domains of the ordered carbon vacancies

- A simple route to prepare ultrafine-grained TiCx by SPS with simultaneous formation of ordered carbon vacancies.
- Compressive strength was greatly enhanced due to the ordered carbon vacancies.
- Formation mechanism of ultrafine-grained TiCx simultaneously with ordered vacancies is discussed.