Microstructure and mechanical properties of the boride doping TiB2 ceramic

In the fabrication of TiB2 ceramics, the key process is the high temperature sintering. How to prepare TiB2 materials with high density at lower sintering temperature is a challenging research task. In the present paper, a new method is explored by using various metal boride-sintering additives such as ZrB2, MoB2. A solid reaction between TiB2 and the sintering additive takes place during the sintering process, resulting in a ceramics with high density at lower temperature. The Rietveld X-ray diffraction whole pattern fitting method was applied to study the crystalline structure of TiB2 solid solution. The microstructure of TiB2 was characterized by means of SEM and TEM. A three- point bending test and a single edge-notch bending test (SENB) was used to evaluate the mechanical properties. The experimental results show that by using a sintering agent the sintering temperature of TiB2 remarkably decreased, while the variation of the crystalline structure parameters is dependent on the amount of additive agent. The type of additive also has a great influence on mechanical properties of TiB2.