Preparation of titanium diboride TiB 2 by spark plasma sintering at slow heating rate

Abstract

A systematic study of the spark plasma sintering of TiB 2 starting from mixture of elemental powders was performed to investigate the temperature distribution between pressing tool and sinter body. The reaction mechanism and time-dependant evolution of the sintering behavior are established. The simultaneous application of pulsed high dc current and load leads to a microstructure with needle-shaped grains. Electron backscattering diffraction analyses show the preferred orientation of small crystallites parallel to the pressing direction.