The corrosion and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered composites reinforced with titanium diboride

Studies covered the effect of sintering conditions and TiB2particulate content on the mechanical and corrosion properties of steel-TiB2composites. Composites with varying volume fraction of TiB2(2–8 vol%) were sintered by SPS, and the resultant mechanical properties were determined in compression tests, including tests at elevated temperatures (600 °C and 800 °C). The corrosion resistance of TiB2-reinforced austenitic steel was tested by electrochemical method in the environment of H2SO4. The results of experiments have shown that the compressive strength of sintered composites is strongly related to the sintering temperature and volume fraction of TiB2in the steel matrix. The strength of the tested composites was gradually decreasing with the increasing temperature of the compression test. The corrosion resistance of the sintered composites was increasing with the increasing time and temperature of the sintering process. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.