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Reactive Hot Pressing and Properties of Zr 1− x Ti x B 2 –ZrC Composites
Author(s) -
Rosenberger Andrew T,
Hodson Stephen,
Fisher Timothy,
Stanciu Lia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.13350
Subject(s) - materials science , flexural strength , hot pressing , microstructure , composite material , grain size , composite number , grain growth
Reactive hot pressing was used to prepare Zr 1− x Ti x B 2 –ZrC composites with advantageous microstructure and mechanical properties from ZrB 2 –TiC powders. The reaction mechanisms and the effects of different levels of TiC on the physical and mechanical properties of the resulting composite were explored in detail and compared to conventionally hot‐pressed ZrB 2 and ZrB 2 –ZrC. Incorporation of 10 to 30 vol% TiC enabled full densification and restrained grain growth, reducing the final average grain size from 5.6 μm in pure ZrB 2 to a minimum of 1.4 μm in samples with 30 vol% TiC. The flexural strengths and hardnesses of the composites sintered with TiC were consequently greater than the conventionally processed ZrB 2 –ZrC materials, increasing from 440 MPa and 17.4 GPa to a maximum of 670 MPa and 24.2 GPa at 10 vol% TiC. However, despite a decrease in the total average grain size, the flexural strength at higher TiC levels was limited by an increase in ZrC grain growth, which was observed to determine the flexural strength of the reaction sintered composites similar to the case of ZrB 2 –SiC.