Effect of tin on the reaction synthesis of ternary carbide Ti3AlC2

The effect of tin on synthesis of Ti3AlC2 by spark plasma sintering (SPS) from TiC/Ti/Al powders was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for phase identification and microstructure evaluation. The experimental results show that addition of tin can considerably accelerate the synthesis reaction of Ti3AlC2 and fully dense, essentially single-phase polycrystalline Ti3AlC2 could be successfully obtained by sintering 2TiC/1Ti/1Al/0.2Sn powders at 1200–1250 °C under a pressure of 30 MPa. SEM images show that Ti3AlC2 samples in about 2–5 μm thick and 10–25 μm long platelets can be obtained. The fracture toughness and flexural strength of Ti3AlC2 were 6.5±0.2 MPa·m1/2 and 560±10 MPa, respectively.