Influence of preceramic paper composition on microstructure and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered Ti3SiC2-based composites

Abstract

This paper describes the effect of preceramic paper composition on microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti3SiC2-based composites. The preceramic paper with Ti3SiC2-powder filler and different content (from 10 to 40 wt.%) of organic component (cellulose) was prepared. The composites were obtained by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 50 MPa pressure for 10 min holding time. The sintering temperature was 1473 K. The influence of organic content on microstructure, phase composition, and flexural strength of the sintered materials was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and mechanical testing, respectively. It was revealed that the microstructure of the sintered materials became more porous with increasing of cellulose content in the paper. XRD analysis showed the presence of Ti3SiC2, TiC and TiSi2 phases in the sintered samples while the content of the Ti3SiC2 phase increase with decreasing of the organic content. The flexural strength changes from 100 (40 wt.%) to 300 MPa (10 wt.% organic binder) that is caused by porosity of the composites.