In-situ synthesis of TiC/Fe alloy composites with high strength and hardness by reactive sintering

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2017.03.006

Abstract

Abstract:

Fe alloy composites reinforced with in-situ titanium carbide (TiC) particles were fabricated by reactive sintering using different reactant C/Ti ratios of 0.8, 0.9, 1 and 1.1 to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites. The microstructure showed that the in-situ synthesized TiC particles were spherical with a size of 1-3 μm, irrespective of C/Ti ratio. The stoichiometry of in-situ TiC increased from 0.85 to 0.88 with increasing C/Ti ratio from 0.8 to 0.9, but remained almost unchanged for C/Ti ratios between 0.9 and 1.1 due to the same driving force for carbon diffusion in TiC_x at the common sintering temperature. The in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composite with C/Ti = 0.9 showed improved mechanical properties compared with other C/Ti ratios because the presence of excess carbon (C/Ti = 1 and 1.1) resulted in unreacted carbon within the Fe alloy matrix, while insufficient carbon (C/Ti = 0.8) caused the depletion of carbon from the Fe alloy matrix, leading to a significant decrease in hardness. This study presents that the maximized hardness and superior strength of in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites can be achieved by microstructure control and stoichiometric analysis of the in-situ synthesized TiC particles, while maintaining the ductility of the composites, compared to those of the unreinforced Fe alloy. Therefore, we anticipate that the in-situ synthesized TiC/Fe alloy composites with enhanced mechanical properties have great potential in cutting tool, mold and roller material applications.

Key words: Metal matrix composites, Sintering, Mechanical properties, Microstructures

Junho Lee, Dongju Lee, Myung Hoon Song, Wonhyuk Rhee, Ho Jin Ryu, Soon Hyung Hong. In-situ synthesis of TiC/Fe alloy composites with high strength and hardness by reactive sintering[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2018, 34(8): 1397-1404.

Figures/Tables 12

Table 1 Composition of Fe alloy powder.

C	Si	Mn	P	S	Ni	Cr	Mo	Cu	V	Fe
1.57	0.35	0.44	0.013	0.006	0.08	11.98	1.00	0.02	0.35	Bal.

Fig. 1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of raw materials (a) Fe alloy (AISI D2) powders, (b) TiH2 powders and carbon black powders.

Fig. 2. SEM micrographs of mixed powders with C/Ti = 1 at (a) low magnification and (b) high magnification.

Fig. 3. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves of composite powders for the in-situ titanium carbide (TiC)/Fe alloy composites with different C/Ti ratios.

Table 2 Melting temperature of composite powders with different C/Ti ratios.

	C/Ti = 0.8	C/Ti = 0.9	C/Ti = 1	C/Ti = 1.1
Solidus ( °C)	1243	1241	1232	1222
Liquidus ( °C)	1392	1349	1324	1304

Fig. 4. (a) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composite samples, (b) carbon content in the matrix measured using an electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) and (c) magnified TiC peaks from (a) between 2θ = 60°-61° with different C/Ti ratios.

Table 3 Intensity ratio of retained austenite to Fe and TiC phases in XRD patterns.

	C/Ti = 0.8	C/Ti = 0.9	C/Ti = 1	C/Ti = 1.1
I_aus/(I_Fe + I_TiC + I_aus)	0.07	0.15	0.22	0.27

Fig. 5. Microstructure and size distribution of TiC particles in the in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites with different C/Ti ratios (a, c) C/Ti = 1.1 (b, d) C/Ti = 1 (e, g) C/Ti = 0.9 and (f, h) C/Ti = 0.8 with higher magnification images included as insets.

Fig. 6. TEM micrographs of the in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composite with C/Ti = 0.9. (a) Low magnification, (b) HRTEM image of interface (dotted line in (a)) between the in-situ TiC and Fe alloy, (c) FFT images of the in-situ TiC region and (d) Fe alloy region. (e) HAADF-STEM image of full line in (a) and (f-h) Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping showing the in-situ TiC and Fe alloy regions.

Fig. 7. (a) Hardness and (b) flexural strength-strain curves obtained by bending test of the in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites with different C/Ti ratios and unreinforced Fe alloy.

Table 4 Mechanical properties of in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites depending on C/Ti ratio.

	Hardness (HRc)	Flexural strength (MPa)	Flexural strain (%)
C/Ti = 1.1	66.8 ± 0.6	1219 ± 53	1.99 ± 0.06
C/Ti = 1	67.0 ± 0.6	1247 ± 35	2.05 ± 0.03
C/Ti = 0.9	67.4 ± 0.3	1394 ± 65	2.30 ± 0.14
C/Ti = 0/8	63.7 ± 0.3	1548 ± 140	2.68 ± 0.04
Unreinforced Fe alloy	60.7 ± 0.3	1360 ± 40	2.33 ± 0.2

Fig. 8. Fracture surfaces of the in-situ TiC/Fe alloy composites with various C/Ti ratios: (a) C/Ti = 1.1, (b) C/Ti = 1, (c) C/Ti = 0.9 and (d) C/Ti = 0.8 after three-point bending tests.

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