EXPERIMENTAL SYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM CARBIDE IN A LABORATORY REACTOR FOR REFRACTORY COMPOUNDS USING PLASMA ACTIVATION OF THE THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESS

Abstract

The development of technologies for producing high-quality materials is one of the most important tasks of modern materials science. This work is devoted to the investigation of the plasma-chemical synthesis of titanium carbide powder using an electric arc discharge that provides the generation of high-temperature plasma. Titanium oxide and carbon were used as the sterting materials. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the synthesized product contains approximately 96 wt.% of the cubic titanium carbide phase. Investigation of the powder morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the average particle size is 2.6 μm. Most particles have a rounded or oval shape, while a small number of angular particles were also observed. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) showed that the atomic and weight composition of the powder. Analysis of the images obtained in the back scattered electron (BSE) and secondary electron (SE) modes confirmed the results of the elemental analysis, while EDS mapping demonstrated a uniform distribution of titanium and carbon throughout the particles, with localized oxygen and trace amounts of aluminum.