High-performance Ti composites reinforced with in-situ TiC derived from pyrolysis of polycarbosilane

Abstract In this work, we developed a powder conditioning process that involves coating polycarbosilane (PCS) on Ti particles. After sintering, the conditioned Ti powder was converted into Ti composites. TiC was derived from the pyrolysis of PCS and forming an in-situ reinforcement. There exists a specific orientation relationship of ( 111 ) TiC∥ ( 10 1 ¯ 0 ) Ti and [ 11 2 ¯ ] TiC∥ [ 1 2 ¯ 10 ] Ti. The average grain size of α-Ti decreases significantly from 100.5 μm in pure Ti to 16.1 μm in the Ti-3 wt.% PCS composite. When the PCS content is 4 wt%, Ti3Si particles precipitate out, and they are combined with TiC forming an aggregated network architecture. Among these Ti composites, the 3 wt% PCS sample exhibits a high tensile strength of 861 MPa, high yield strength of 754 MPa and reasonably large elongation of 10.8%, respectively.