2007 年 48 巻 9 号 p. 2427-2431
Strengthening of titanium silicon carbide (Ti3SiC2) was investigated by the grain orientation control and silicon carbide (SiC) whisker dispersion. Ti3SiC2 with preferentially oriented grains was prepared by hot-pressing of milled Ti3SiC2 powder. Composites were also fabricated by hot-pressing of a blend of the milled Ti3SiC2 powder and SiC whiskers. During hot-pressing, the preferential orientation of Ti3SiC2 grains was achieved while the precipitation of titanium carbide (TiC) occurred. As a result, 4-point bending strength of preferentially-oriented Ti3SiC2 was approximately 1.5 times the randomly-oriented pure Ti3SiC2 in a temperature range from room temperature to 1073 K. The bending strength of Ti3SiC2 with 15 vol% whiskers reached approximately 1 GPa, approximately 3 times the randomly-oriented pure Ti3SiC2, in the range to 1073 K. The results in this study indicate that the strengthening effect on Ti3SiC2 was contributed from the orientation control, TiC precipitation and SiC whisker dispersion.