Production of TiC and TiC–Al2O3 composites via combustion synthesis technique

Titanium carbide is one of the hardest natural carbides and is a ceramic used in advanced technology applications. It possesses remarkable properties such as high chemical corrosion resistance, stability at high temperatures, high hardness, and wear resistance. Due to these properties, it is widely used in cutting tools, abrasive materials, hard coatings, and high-temperature applications. Titanium carbide can be produced by carbothermal reduction, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), powder metallurgy, mechanical alloying, and self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). In this study, it is aimed to synthesize TiC ceramic material and TiC–Al2O3 composite using the self-propagating high temperature synthesis method from oxide raw materials. The main advantage of the SHS process compared to other methods is that it allows production with high-efficiency advanced technology ceramic powders with low energy requirements by achieving quite high temperatures with its own energy generated during the reaction. In this study, TiO2 and carbon black were used as raw materials and Mg or Al powders as reducing agents. The SHS products reduced with Mg were subjected to a leaching process to remove Mg-containing components. The obtained products were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and advanced technology ceramics with sub-micron particle structure similar to commercial products were produced.