Fabrication of Ti-Zr-Ni bulk quasicrystal by mechanical alloying and pulse current sintering

Elementary powder mixtures with the composition of Ti-45 at.%Zr-38 at.%Ni and Y as an additive has been mechanically alloyed using a planetary ball mill. All of the obtained powders consisted of mainly an amorphous phase. With increasing content of Y, the quantity of icosahedral quasicrystal increased in heat-treated powders. The addition of 3 at.%Y led to almost fully quasicrystalline phase. Ti-Zr-Ni bulk quasicrystal was successfully prepared using a pulse current sintering method under an applied pressure of 500 MPa at 813 K. The obtained bulk quasicrystal material has a Vicker hardness of 6.9 GPa.