Advanced Ceramics Progress

Advanced Ceramics Progress

Effects of Ball Milling Sequences on the Reactive Synthesis of Ti3AlC2 from Ti/Al/C Powder Mixture

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors
Akbar Heidarpour 1
Amir Haghighi 2
Samad Ghasemi 3
Amir Alhaji 4
1 Associate Professor, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan, Iran.
2 MSc, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan, Iran.
4 PhD, Department of Materials Engineering, Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, Shahin-Shahr, Isfahan, Iran.
10.30501/acp.2025.517824.1175
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the synthesis of Ti3AlC2 MAX phase through ball milling a Ti/Al/C mixture in three distinct sequences. In the first run, a mixture of 3Ti/Al/2C was ball milled for 10 hours. In the second run, the Al/C mixture was ball milled for 5 hours, and which Ti was added, and the ball milling was continued for a period of 10 hour. In the third run, the Ti/Al mixture was ball milled for 5 hours, followed by the addition of C, with the ball milling extended over a 10-hour period. The effects of heat treatment at high temperature were also explored. Furthermore, characterization of the products in terms of structural evolution, as well as the morphological investigation, was carried out by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), respectively. The XRD results revealed that the Ti3AlC2 and TiC phases are the main reaction products formed after ball milling in different sequences. Annealing at high temperature resulted in the completion of the synthesis reactions and improvement in the purity of Ti3AlC2 MAX phase, with the highest purity obtained following the third ball milling. The characteristics lamellar structure of Ti3AlC2 was observed in the SEM micrographs of the annealed product. 
Keywords
Ti3AlC2
MAX Phase
Synthesis
Ball Milling

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 19 April 2025
  • Revise Date 23 May 2025
  • Accept Date 11 July 2025