A study on the reaction mechanism and growth of Ti3SiC2 synthesized by hot-pressing

As the only true ternary compound in the Ti-Si-C system, Ti3SiC2 has excellent properties such as good electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance. Although hot-pressing is a convenient method to synthesize Ti3SiC2, few reports focus on the characteristics of Ti3SiC2 synthesized by this method. According to the growth model of Ti3SiC2, this work focuses on morphology, preferred orientation and reaction mechanism of Ti3SiC2 by hot-press sintering. It is proved that Ti3SiC2 grows from a liquid phase, and as the holding time increase, the basal plane of Ti3SiC2 grains orient themselves parallel to the pressing surface. We point out in this work, that the diffraction data of Ti3SiC2 in the JCPDS card were flawed, and that correct results can be obtained only by using a more controlled method to avoid {0001} planar texture. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.