Since Pietzka and Schuster first synthesized Ti3AlC2 bulk materials by sintering cold-compacted powder mixtures of Ti, TiAl, Al4C3, and C at 1300 °C in pure hydrogen for 20 h [1], various methods have been attempted to synthesize Ti3AlC2 bulk materials such as pressureless sintering, spark plasma sintering, hot isostatic pressing, self-propagating high-temperature synthesis, high-energy ball milling, and so on. However, there are few works reported on the preparation of Ti3AlC2 powders. Li et al.Synthesized ternarily layered compound Ti3AlC2 powder with high purity by a rapid heating method at 1350 °C holding for 60 min. Ai et al. Synthesized the nearly pure Ti3AlC2 powder by a pressureless calcining process using Sn as an additive at 1350 to 1500 °C.
Nevertheless, due to high synthesis temperature, the particle size of Ti3AlC2 powder prepared by these methods is always from a few microns to dozens of micron range, which may negatively affect its applications in some fields. Hence, developing a novel process to synthesize nano-scale or micro-nano Ti3AlC2 powder with high dispersibility at moderate conditions is necessary. The molten salt method has attracted increasing interest in recent years due to its low-temperature synthesis of nanosized carbide. Until now, Ti3SiC2 and Cr2AlC have also been successfully synthesized by molten salt. However, the mixture of the salt and raw materials needs to be firstly ball-milled for a long time (16-24 h) and then synthesized by the abovementioned methods. In addition, the particle size of the prepared Ti3SiC2 and Cr2AlC MAX phases is also larger than a few microns. Therefore, this work aims to report on the synthesis of nano-scale Ti3AlC2 powder by a modified molten salt method using Ti, Al, and C as raw materials without ball milling at a relatively low temperature. If you are looking for high quality, high purity, and cost-effective Titanium Aluminum Carbide, or if you require the latest price of Titanium Aluminum Carbide, please feel free to email contact mis-asia.
