Effect of compacting pressure, powder degassing and thermobaric treatment on densification and properties of nanocrystalline titanium nitride

The effects of compacting pressure, powder degassing and high pressure sintering temperature and time on the densification and properties of nanocrystalline titanium nitride have been investigated. For this reason, TiN powder with a mean particle size of 55 nm was pressed in the range of compacting pressure from 0.2 to 1.0 GPa and sintered under static pressure of 3.5 GPa in the temperature range of 900–1600°C for 45–120 s. Some of green bodies were degassed in vacuum before sintering. It was shown that samples compacted in the pressure range of 0.2–0.6 GPa have the highest density after the thermobaric treatment. The maximum density (about 97.3 %TD) was obtained with degassed samples. Microhardness and microstructure investigations have shown that recrystallization of the TiN nanopowder begins at the sintering temperatures of 1100–1200°C and sintering time less than one minute. The maximum microhardness obtained was 23.2±1.0 GPa and themaximum Young modulus was 370 GPa