Fabrication of fine grain titanium silicon carbide by using fine titanium hydride powders

Titanium silicon carbide (Ti3SiC2) was synthesized by hot-pressing of powder blends of titanium or titanium hydride, silicon and titanium carbide. Commercial titanium powders with two different average particle sizes and titanium hydride powders with six average particle sizes prepared by ball milling were used for the synthesis to investigate their effect on the crystal grain size of synthesized Ti3SiC2. We found that the grain size of Ti3SiC2 decreases with a decrease in particle size of both titanium and titanium hydride powders. Particularly, employment of titanium hydride powders resulted in finer crystal grains than using titanium powders. We also found that finer titanium hydride powders raise synthetic reaction temperature of Ti3SiC2 and lead to more TiC in the synthesized Ti3SiC2.