Low temperature combustion synthesis for preparation of TiC reinforced Fe based composites under electric field

In the present paper, the combustion synthesis processes of the system of Fe based composites, mainly containing Fe-Ti-C, under an electric field was studied by using a Gleeble 1500D thermal simulation instrument. The results showed that there was a great change in temperature inside the sample under rather low temperature, compared with that in the self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) processes. This indicated that a reaction may occur, which led to a great deal of heat release. Analyses by X-ray diffraction proved that the microstructures of the sample after combustion consist of TiC, alpha-Fe and a little Fe2Ti. Therefore, it was demonstrated that Fe/TiC system can be synthesised in an electric field, even under low temperature.