Fabrication of TiN/cBN and TiC/diamond coated particles by titanium deposition process

Cubic boron nitride particles coated by titanium nitride (TiN/cBN) as well as diamond particles coated by titanium carbide (TiC/diamond) were prepared by Ti molten salt deposition followed by heat-treatment process. cBN or diamond particles were mixed separately with Ti powders and molten salts (KCl, NaCl and K2TiF6). The mixture was heated at 900 °C under argon atmosphere. The produced particles were heat-treated under hydrogen at 1000 °C. The morphologies and chemical compositions of the produced particles were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and focused ion beam (FIB). The results show that the cBN and the diamond particles are coated by nano-sized Ti layers. By heat-treatment of the Ti/cBN and TiC/diamond coated particles under hydrogen atmosphere, the deposited Ti layers were interacted by the in-situ transformation reaction with the surfaces of cBN and diamond particles and converted to titanium compounds (TiN and TiC), respectively.