Synthesis of high-purity polycrystalline Ti3AlC2 through pulse discharge sintering Ti/Al/TiC powders

Powders of Ti, Al and TiC were mixed as starting materials for the synthesis of ternary compound Ti3AlC2 at 1200–1400 °C by using pulse discharge sintering (PDS) technique. The fully dense and almost single-phase polycrystalline Ti3AlC2 was obtained at 1300 °C for 15 min, when the molar ratio of the starting powder mixture was selected to be Ti:Al:TiC = 2:2:3. The typical microstructure of Ti3AlC2 was found to consist of plate-like grains with size of about 3–5 μm in width and 20–50 μm in length. The intermediate phases of Ti3Al, TiAl and Ti2AlC were found during the reactive sintering process and the reactions for the Ti3AlC2 phase formation were proposed.