Self-propagating high-temperature reductive synthesis of TiB2-Al2O3 composite powders

TiB2-Al2O3 composite powders were produced by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis(SHS) method with reductive process from B2O3-TiO2-Al system. X-ray diffraction(XRD) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) analyses show the presence of TiB2 and Al2O3 only in the composite powders produced by SHS. The powders are uniform and free-agglomerate. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution electron microscopy (HREM) observation of microstructure of the composite powders indicate that the interfaces of the TiB2-Al2O3 bond well, without any interfacial reaction products. It is proposed that the good interfacial bonding of the composite powders can be resulted from the TiB2 particles crystallizing and growing on the Al2O3 particles surface with surface defects acting as nucleation centers.