Influence of mechanical alloying on Ti3SiC2 formation via spark plasma sintering technique from Ti/SiC/C powders

Ti3SiC2 was elaborated by two different methods: (i) Spark plasma sintering of 5Ti/2SiC/C powders and (ii) mechanical alloying of powders followed by Spark plasma sintering. The results showed that mechanical alloying was not advantageous for pure Ti3SiC2 formation but it can significantly improve the density of the obtained bulk material via the particles refinement as well as the microhardness by increasing the TiC content. It was found that the relative density was increased up to 98.58% for the sintered mechanically alloyed sample whereas it was not more than 96.04% for the sintered 5Ti/2SiC/C starting powders. The Vickers microhardness measured for both bulk samples demonstrates a high improvement for the previously mechanically alloyed powder mixture, as it was of about 1282 Hv and only 581.2 Hv for the alloy obtained from 5Ti/2SiC/C starting powders.