Synthesis of TiC–Al2O3 nanocomposite powder from impure Ti chips, Al and carbon black by mechanical alloying

The possibility of providing TiC–Al2O3 nanocomposite as a useful composite from low-cost raw materials has been investigated. Impure Ti chips were placed in a high energy ball mill with carbon black and aluminum powder and sampled after different times. XRD analysis showed that TiC has been synthesized after 10 h of milling. It could be observed from the width of XRD patterns’ peaks that the size of produced TiC crystallites is in the order of nanometer. In order to forming of TiC–Al2O3 composite, heat treatment was performed in different temperatures. Investigations have revealed that formation temperature of TiC as the dominant phase decreased for the milled specimens during heat treatment, also nanocrystalline TiC–Al2O3 composite was formed in this situation. Furthermore milling led to increase of strain and decrease of TiC lattice parameter while during heat treatment nanocrystalline grains grow up and strain decreases.