Preparation and characteristics of Ti3AlC2 -Al3Ti/Al composite materials synthesized from pure Al and Ti3AlC2 powders

Abstract A novel Ti3AlC2- Al3Ti/Al composite was fabricated by hot pressing Ti3AlC2 and pure Al powders. One strong interfacial bonding appeared due to the formation of Al3Ti phase between Ti3AlC2 and Al observed by HRTEM. Flexural strength, compressive strength, compressive yield strength and Vickers hardness of 30 vol% Ti3AlC2 reinforced Al composite were measured to be 398 ± 5 MPa, 404 ± 17 MPa, 359 ± 12 MPa, and 1.91 ± 0.01 GPa, respectively. Transgranular fracture behavior occurred in unreacted Ti3AlC2 particles in bending test, while no interfacial debonding was observed. The enhancement of mechanical properties were attributed to the load transfer strengthening, thermal mismatch strengthening and dispersion strengthening mechanism.