A new rapid route for in situ synthesizing monolithic TiB ceramic

Fine-grained monolithic TiB ceramics were successfully in situ synthesized by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique at temperatures of 1150°-1450°C and a pressure of 50 MPa, using Ti and TiB₂ as reactants. Mechanical properties and densification behavior of the TiB ceramics were investigated. The results indicate that TiB ceramic sintered at 1450°C provide the optimal combination of dense microstructure and excellent properties, including the relative density of 98.2%, the microhardness of 21.2 ± 1.8 GPa, the flexural strength of 548 ± 45 MPa and the fracture toughness of 5.9 ± 0.4 MPa·m^1/2. The dense and fine-grained microstructures are the main factors to improve the mechanical properties of the TiB ceramic synthesized by SPS process.