Fabrication and mechanical properties of Al2O3/Ti(C0.7N0.3) nanocomposites

Two kinds of Al2O3/Ti(C0.7N0.3) nanocomposites were fabricated with traditional hot pressed sintering and repetitious-hot-pressing technology, one is added with nano-scale SiC, and the other is without SiC. The results showed that the mechanical properties of the former are higher than that of the latter, especially the fracture toughness can reach up to 8.3 MPa m1/2. Although the fracture toughness remains high, repetitious-hot-pressing results in the reduction of flexural strength. The improvement of the mechanical properties is interpreted from the different microstructure and fracture mode. The microstructure shows that the addition of nano-scale Ti(C0.7N0.3) and nano-scale SiC lead to the refinement of matrix grain, and the inter/intragranular microstructure can be formed instead of the intergranular microstructure in monolithic alumina. The higher fracture toughness resulted mainly from the transgranular fracture mode.