A study on the reaction mechanism and growth of Ti3SiC2 synthesized by hot-pressing

Abstract As the only true ternary compound in the Ti–Si–C system, Ti 3 SiC 2 has excellent properties such as good electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance. Although hot-pressing is a convenient method to synthesize Ti 3 SiC 2 , few reports focus on the characteristics of Ti 3 SiC 2 synthesized by this method. According to the growth model of Ti 3 SiC 2 , this work focuses on morphology, preferred orientation and reaction mechanism of Ti 3 SiC 2 by hot-press sintering. It is proved that Ti 3 SiC 2 grows from a liquid phase, and as the holding time increase, the basal plane of Ti 3 SiC 2 grains orient themselves parallel to the pressing surface. We point out in this work, that the diffraction data of Ti 3 SiC 2 in the JCPDS card were flawed, and that correct results can be obtained only by using a more controlled method to avoid { 000l } planar texture.