Cyclic Oxidation and Diffusion-Controlled Performance of Ti2AlC MAX-Phase Produced by Spark Plasma Sintering

• Published in: JOM (1989) 2023-11, Vol.75 (11), p.4980-4992
• Main Authors: Ali, Rawaid, Song, Peng, Khan, Muhammad, Ali, Shabir, Huang, Taihong, Shakeel, Hanifi, Dadallah, Lu, Jiansheng, Fazil, Perveen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemistry/Food Science; Earth Sciences; Engineering; Environment; Physics; Technical Article
• ISSN: 1047-4838; 1543-1851
• DOI: 10.1007/s11837-023-05780-z

The Al 2 O 3 forming MAX-phase Ti 2 AlC has potential to be used in the high-temperature combustion chambers of aircraft engines. In this work, Ti 2 AlC powder was compressed and synthesized by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1200°C and 30 MPa for different periods of time. The surface morphology, cross-section microstructure, mapping elemental distribution analysis, phase transition analysis, and mechanical properties were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and nanoindentation techniques. The results revealed that between 24 h and 100 h, Ti 2 AlC structure was primarily composed of rutile TiO 2, with a small amount of α-Al 2 O 3 and numerous planar defects. When the oxidation time was increased, some additional oxides such as rutile-TiO 2 , α-Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 -Al 2 TiO 5 , and TiO 2 -α-Al 2 O 3 were also formed. Although the planar defects were reduced at 300 h due to the inward diffusion of O 2− and outward diffusion of Al 3+ and Ti 4+ , they spread throughout the entire structure rather than forming layers, leading to a significant loss in oxidation resistance.