Sintering behaviour of nanocrystalline titanium nitride powders
- The sintering behaviour of one microcrystalline and several nanocrystalline TiN powders was investigated by means of a gas pressure furnace with an integrated dilatometer. The investigated nanocrystalline powders strongly differ in the sintering activity. It can be concluded from the experiments, that small grain size, narrow grain size distribution and a low oxygen content are the most important prerequisites for high sintering activity of the nanocrystalline TiN powders.
The extraordinary sintering activity of the best TiN powder makes it possible to produce a dense (< 2 % porosity), pure (no sintering aids) and nanostructured (mean diameter of crystals about 100 nm) TiN bodies.