An X-ray diffraction study of the texture of Ti3SiC2 fabricated by hot pressing

Bulk sample of Ti3SiC2 was synthesized by hot pressing from Ti, SiC and graphite powders with 20 vol.% TiC as the second phase. Two samples were prepared to perform XRD experiments: one was the bulk sample whose faces paralleled to the pressing surface, and the other was powder, which was milled from the former bulk sample. These two XRD patterns were further corrected to get more precise data. The results indicated that in bulk sample Ti3SiC2 phase possessed strong texture, whereas TiC phase did not possess texture. The relative orientation density, Jhkl, was calculated for each crystal plane of Ti3SiC2, phase. The results also showed that the basal plane in Ti3SiC2 phase preferred not to parallel to the pressing surface.