Abstract
Titanium carbide foams were prepared by self-propagation high temperature synthesis under terrestrial (1-g) and microgravity (µ-g) conditions. Carbon black was used as carbiding source and to investigate its role on pore generation. It was confirmed that non-decomposing substances in carbon black play the main role in the foaming. The lattice constant of the synthesized titanium carbide increased with increasing packing density of the starting powder compact when synthesized in air, while it was nearly independent of the packing density when the compact was synthesized in Ar.The effect of gravity on the synthesis was also elucidated. The microstructure of the synthesized titanium carbide under µ-g was finer than that under l g. The reaction velocity under µ-g was higher than that under 1-g, resulting in a smaller elongation.
