Preparation and sintering of ultrafine TiB 2 powders

Abstract Ultrafine TiB 2 powders were synthesized by carbon/boron thermal reduction method and single-phase TiB 2 ceramics were prepared by hot pressing the obtained TiB 2 powders with Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (YAG) as sintering additive. Phase and morphologies of powders were characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. XRD and SEM were used to investigate phase and microstructure of sintered samples. Results indicated the synthesized powders to be ultrafine and the better materials to be obtained for 5 wt% YAG content, that showed the best sintering behavior leading to relative density, hardness, flexural strength and fracture toughness of 99.1%, 49.3 GPa, 607 MPa and 12.68 MPa m 1/2 , respectively.