The Energy-Efficient Processing of Fine Materials by the Micropyretic Synthesis Route

Energy-efficient processing of TiB compound with nanowhiskers by micropyretic synthesis is investigated in this paper. Micropyretic synthesis not only offers shorter processing time but also excludes the requirement for high-temperature sintering and it is considered as the one of the novel energy-saving processing techniques. Experimental study and numerical simulation are both carried out to investigate the correlation of the processing parameters on the microstructures of the micropyretically synthesized products. The diffusion-controlled reaction mechanism is proposed in this study. It is noted that nanosize TiB whiskers only occurred when the combustion temperature is lower than the melting point of TiB but higher than the extinguished temperature. The results generated in the numerical calculation can be used as a helpful reference to select the proper route of processing nanosize materials. The Arrhenius-type plot of size and temperature is used to calculate the activation energy of TiB reaction. In addition to verifying the accuracy of the experimental measures, the reaction temperature for producing the micropyretically synthesized products with nanofeatures can be predicted.