A novel approach to prepare Ni-coated TiB2 cermet

A novel approach was developed to prepare Ni-coated TiB2 cermet. Fine Ni particles with mean particle size of about 80 nm were impacted onto coarse TiB2 particles having a mean size of about 5 mu m to form Ni-coated TiB2 powder by Hybridization. The conventional blended TiB2-Ni powder, as well as Ni-coated TiB2 powder, was sintered by hot pressing (HP) method and Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Compared with the conventional blended TiB2-Ni cermet, particle features and mechanical properties of the Ni-coated TiB2 cermet were investigated. The microstructure analysis reveals that the thickness of Ni film is around 4 nm. It is concluded that the mechanical properties of Ni-coated TiB2 cermet are superior to the blended TiB2-Ni cermet.