Synthesis of the ternary metal carbide solid-solution ceramics by polymer-derived-ceramic route

The polymer-derived-ceramic (PDC) route has been widely used to fabricate the transition-metal carbides (TMCs). Previously reported works focused mainly on the synthesis of the single or binary TMCs, while the synthesis of the ternary or more component TMCs was rarely reported. Herein, a class of the ternary TMCs, namely (Nb1/3Zr1/3Ta1/3)C solid-solution ceramics, was successfully synthesized via PDC route for the first time. The as-synthesized ceramics exhibited the particle-like morphology with an average particle size of similar to 250 nm and showed a single rock-salt crystal structure of metal carbides. At the same time, they had high compositional uniformity from nanoscale to microscale. In addition, they possessed low-oxygen impurity content of 0.79 wt% and moderate-carbon impurity content of 8.98 wt%. Such work provides a novel route to fabricate the ternary or more component TMCs.