Synthesis and Characterization of Commercial Pure Titanium-nickel Alloy Behavior Reinforced With Titanium Diboride

Abstract Commercial pure titanium alloy with Ni-TiB2 ceramic additions (5, 10, 15 and 20 vol.%) were synthesized through the spark plasma sintering approach with sintering temperature of 1000 oC, the heating rate of 100 oC/min, holding time of 5 min at a constant pressure of 50 MPa. The study investigated the effect of Ni-TiB2 on the densification, phase change, microhardness, microstructure, and wear properties of the sintered titanium-based composites. Results showed that Ti-Ni-TiB2 composites relative density ranges from 97 to 99 %, while microhardness values increase with addition of nickel and titanium diboride from 228 to 587 HV0.1. The microstructural evolution shows that pure titanium transformed from lamellar phase to equiaxed alpha phase upon addition of nickel alloy and further get refined with a distinct grain boundary comprises of titanium diboride around the boundaries. The average coefficient of friction for the titanium-based composite was higher for commercially pure titanium (0.73) while the addition of TiB2 exhibit (0.66, 0.63, 0.58, 0.55 and 0.46 respectively) improvement in the wear behavior.