Plasma-assisted elaboration of macropore architectures in titanium nitride

Titanium nitride (TiN) is prepared via a convenient direct nitridation process in an improved direct current arc discharge plasma setup. The XRD pattern shows that the as-prepared coarse particles are single-phase TIN possessing a face-centered cubic lattice with the cell constant a = 0.4242 nm. SEM studies reveal that the TiN powders are composed of unique macropore architectures with the pore sizes in the range of 0.2-2.0 mu M and the thickness of the side walls in the range of 0.2-0.5 mu M. The macroporous nature of the obtained TiN sample is further confirmed by N-2 adsorption-desorption measurements, through which a specific surface area to be about 13.57 m(2) g(-1) is determined by using the BET gas adsorption method. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.