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Ti 2 AlN ceramic with a small amount of TiN was rapidly synthesized by the thermal explosion (TE) technique using Ti, Al and TiN as starting materials. The effects of the starting composition, the particle size of TiN and the compacts’ height on the phase composition and microstructure of obtained Ti 2 AlN ceramic were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that high purity Ti 2 AlN ceramic containing 4% TiN could be fabricated at 700 °C for 2 min with a molar ratio of 1.1:1.1:1(Ti: Al: TiN). It was further found that small particle size of TiN and compacts’ height of 2–8 mm were beneficial to obtain high purity Ti 2 AlN. Finally, the formation mechanism of Ti 2 AlN ceramic via thermal explosion was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]