Comparative studies on sintering behavior of self-propagating high-temperature synthesized ultra-fine titanium diboride powder

Sintering behavior of nano-sized titanium diboride (TiB2) power prepared by a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) technique was compared with that of the commercially available powder. The SHS-made powder showed excellent sinterability at low temperatures and a maximum of 97% densification was achieved at 2223 K, whereas the identically sintered commercial powder could only be densitied to similar to 86% at 2223 K. The estimated activation energies for sintering of 35 +/- 0.07 kJ/mole and 46 +/- 0.7 kJ/mole for the SHS and commercial powder, respectively, indicated the possibility of a different mechanism during sintering.