Fabrication of W–1 wt.% TiC composites by spark plasma sintering.

TiC/W ultra-fine powders were produced by one-step activation and chemical reduction process. The powders were consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1800 °C to suppress grain growth during sintering. The grain size, relative density and the Vicker hardness HV 0.2 of the bulk sample fabricated by SPS were 3 μm, 98.6% and 471, respectively. The reduced Young's elastic modulus of the sintered W–1 wt.% TiC composites was 382.7 GPa. As the temperature rises from room temperature (RT) to 1100 K, the thermal conductivity of pure W and W–1 wt.% TiC composites decreased with the same trend. However, the thermal conductivity of the samples was both above 120 W/m K at RT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]