Laser igniting synthesis of TiC powders with Al, Ti and C powders

Laser ignited self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (LISHS) was used to fabricate TiC powders. The raw powders are Ti, Al, and C powders, respectively. A pulsed Nd-yttrium–aluminum–garnet laser was used to ignite reaction in argon atmosphere. The effects of Al content and laser average energy on density, phase composition, microstructure of the reaction products, and particle size and substoichiometry of the synthesized TiC were studied. The results indicated that TiC powders with particle size ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 μm could be made by this method. TiC particulates gradually transformed from the multiangular shape to the spherical shape as laser average energy increased. Nonequilibrium TiCx was formed by LISHS reaction. The substoichiometry of the synthesized TiCx (x=0.62,0.70) was related to Al content. The density of the sintered products was smaller than that of green densities, but sintered densities increased with the increase of Al content.