Mechanical characteristics and high temperature stability of oxidized Ti 3 AlC 2 nanolaminat

The oxide film formed on the surface of the highly dense (ρ=4.27 g/cm 3 , porosity 1 %) material based on nanolaminated MAX phase Ti 3 AlC 2 (89 % Ti 3 AlC 2 , 6 % TiC, 5 % Al 2 O 3 ) manufactured by hot pressing (at 30 MPa) made the material highly resistant in air at high temperatures: after 1000 hours of exposition at 600 °C it demonstrated a higher resistance to oxidation than chromium ferrite steels (Crofer GPU and JDA types). Due to the surface oxidation self-healing of defects took place. Besides, the Ti 3 AlC 2 material demonstrated resistance against high-temperature creep and after being kept in H 2 at 600 °C for 3h its bending strength reduced by 5 % only. At room temperature the Ti 3 AlC 2 bulk exhibited microhardness Hμ = 4.6 GPa (at 5 N), hardness HV 50 = 630 (at 50 N ) and HRA = 70 (at 600 N), Young modulus was 140 ± 29 GPa, bending strength =500 MPa, compression strength 700 MPa, and fracture toughness K 1C =10.2 MPa·m 0.5 .