A study on the kinetic process of reaction synthesis of TiC: Part I. Experimental research and theoretical model

The micromechanism and the macrokinetic process of synthesis TIC in prepari ng Al/TiC by direct reaction synthesis (DRS) have been investigated in deta il by observing the microstructure of the water-quenched preform by scannin g electron microscopy (SEM) and energy* dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Th e results have shown that the micromechanism of reaction is a solution-prec ipitation mechanism, in which carbon powders in the preform were surrounded by a Ti-rich AI-Ti-C melt layer and reacted with titanium in the layer to synthesize TiC particles, and TIC precipitated from the layer and scattered over the alloy melt. The macrokinetic model of reaction synthesis of TiC c an be divided into four stages: heating and melting stage, initial reaction stage, complete reaction stage, and cooling stage. In the end, a macrokine tic model has been set up based on the experimental results.