Effect of excess silicon content on the formation of nano-layered Ti3SiC2 ceramic via infiltration of TiC preforms

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of silicon content on the formation and morphology of Ti3SiC2 based composite via infiltration of porous TiC preforms. The gelcasting process was used for fabrication of preforms. It was found that the infiltrated sample at 1500 °C for 90 min from a mixture of 3TiC/1.5Si containing 92 wt.% Ti3SiC2. With the increasing of TiC and SiC impurity phases, Vickers hardness was increased to the maximum value of 12.9 GPa in Ti3SiC2-39 wt.%TiC composite. Microscopic observations showed that the Ti3SiC2 matrix was composed of columnar, platelike and equiaxial grains with respect to silicon content.