Novel Ti2CuCx and Ti3Cu2Cx Carbides Obtained by Sintering of Products of Mechanochemical Synthesis of Ti, Cu and Carbon Nanotubes

<p>Mechanical alloying of the elemental powder mixture of titanium and copper (particle size of both powdersis about 40 μm, purity is not less than 99.6% wt. %) was performed in a high energy planetary ball mill to obtainTi:Cu (2:1 and 3:1) compositions. An addition of 1 vol. % of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT, averagediameter 10-20 nm) into Ti-Cu charge results in a formation of nanoscaled Ti2CuCx and Ti3Cu2Cx carbides(containing 0.5 and 4.2 at.% of carbon and 30.8 and 37.5 at.% of copper, respectively). These carbides havesynthesized for the first time. Nature of interaction of the charge components at processing in a ball mill hasstudied on test samples using a complex of X-ray techniques. These techniques include a full-profile analysis forthe primary processing of diffractograms obtained with DRON-3M apparatus; qualitative and quantitative phaseanalysis for determining the phase composition of the products of synthesis; X-ray structural analysis to verifyand refine the structural models; Williamson-Hall method for determining the grain sizes. The Vickers hardnessof compacted (by sintering) samples with 20.1 and 27.3 at. % Cu varies substantially within (6.9-7.1) GPa. Thus,the average microhardness of synthesized materials is 7 times higher than that of pure titanium microhardness.</p><p><strong>Key words</strong>: Multiwalled carbon nanotube, Nanocomposite material, X-ray diffraction, Hardness.</p>