Effect of Ti and C particle sizes on reaction behavior of thermal explosion reaction of CuTiC system under Ar and air atmospheres

The thermal explosion (TE) reaction behavior of CuTiC systems with different Ti and C particle sizes was investigated under air and Ar atmospheres. It was found that increasing the Ti and C particle sizes leads to higher ignition temperatures under both atmospheres and that the maximum combustion temperature decreases with increasing C particle size. The TE reaction is much easier to activate (i.e., it has a lower ignition temperature) in air because of the heat released from Ti oxidation and nitridation and Cu oxidation reactions on the CuTiC compact surface. TiC ceramic particles are successfully prepared in the bulk CuTiC compacts under both air and Ar atmospheres through a dissolution-diffusion-precipitation mechanism. Differential thermal and thermodynamic analyses show that the TE reaction ignition process in air is mainly controlled by the Ti particle size.