Structural Investigations of TiC–Cu Nanocomposites Prepared by Ball Milling and Spark Plasma Sintering

In this work, TiC–Cu composites containing 20 and 30 vol % of nano-sized titanium carbide (TiC) particles were prepared by powder metallurgy using copper powders with micrometer-sized and nanometer-sized particles. Mixtures of TiC and Cu powders were ball milled for 10 h and spark plasma sintered at 800–900 °C under an applied pressure of 50 MPa. The relative density of the sintered composites was 95.0%–96.5%. The composites fractured in a ductile mode. The crystallite size of the copper matrix in the composites prepared using the nanometer-sized copper powder was smaller than that in composites prepared using the micrometer-sized copper powder, which was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The hardness of the composites increased as the sintering temperature was increased from 800 to 900 °C. When the TiC content increased from 20 to 30 vol %, the hardness of the composites obtained from the micrometer-sized copper powder and sintered at 900 °C increased from 284 to 315 HV, while in composites obtained from the nanometer-sized copper, the hardness decreased from 347 to 337 HV.