Investigation of the effect of milling time and press pressure on Ti3SiC2 nanolayer maxphase synthesis using reactive melt infiltration process

Ti3SiC2 bulks have been synthesized by infiltrating Si liquid into porous precursor pellets composed of 3TiC/0.3Si. In the first step, in order to find an optimum milling time, the powders were milled at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes, then the mixture was cold pressed under the pressure of 80MPa and then infiltrated with molten Si. Based on the results of XRD and Ritvild tests, 60 minutes were selected as optimal milling time. In the second step, in order to determine the best press pressure, the powders were first milled for 60 minutes and then cold pressed under the pressure of 40, 80, 120 and 160MPa and then infiltrated with molten Si. Based on the results of XRD and Ritvild tests, 40MPa was selected as the optimum press pressure. All specimens were infiltrated in a vacuum of 10-4 torr at 1500°C for 1 hour.