Synthesis of titanium carbide and titanium diboride for metal processing and ceramics production

OBRABOTKAMETALLOV MATERIAL SCIENCE Vol. 23 No. 4 2021 а b Fig. 2 . SEM images of samples 1-3 ( a ) and 1-4 ( b ) In accordance with the sedimentation analysis of samples 1-4 performed by the geometrical method of moments [22], an average particles/aggregates size is 9.6 μ m and standard deviation is 2.50 μ m. When the standard deviation is in the range from 2.0 to 4.0 μ m, the particles/aggregates are “poorly sorted” or polydisperse. To obtain titanium diboride, the charge was prepared by the following stoichiometry for the chemical reaction: 2TiO 2 + B 4 C + 3C = 2TiB 2 + 4CO. (2) The experiments on the synthesis of titanium diboride were conducted at 1,600 and 1,700 о С (samples 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 and 2-4 respectively). Diffraction patterns of the samples are given in Fig. 3. At heat treatment temperatures of 1,600 and 1,700 °C, the obtained samples contain only the target phase (TiB 2 ), regardless of the heat treatment duration. The presence of another possible reaction product, TiB monoboride, was not detected. The results of X-ray fl uorescence analysis of samples 2-1 and 2-2 are given in Table 2. The content of elements with higher atomic weight compared with fl uorine (Al, Ni, S, Si, Nb, Zr) is negligible in the impurities. The content of boron and other elements was determined by the method Fig. 3 . Diffraction patterns of titanium diboride samples