Effect of TiC particle size on microstructure and mechanical properties of 1%TiCp/W composites

The nano-TiCp/W and micro-TiCp/W composites containing 1% TiC（mass fraction） particles with average particle sizes of 50 nm and 1.5 μm were fabricated respectively by high energy ball milling and vacuum hot pressing （VHP） at 2 373 K, 30 MPa, in a vacuum of 1 × 10^-3 Pa. Microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites were examined at room temperature. The results show that both n-TiC and/L-TiC particles are homogeneously distributed in the as-sintered composites. The size of n-TiC particle is about 100 nm, and that of/L-TiC particle is about 1 μm. The additions of n-TiC and/L-TiC particles both result in higher mechanical properties compared with monolithic W. The improved mechanical properties may be mainly attributed to the grain size strengthening, dispersion strengthening and grain boundaries strengthening. The addition of n-TiC particles to tungsten is found to have beneficial effects on the mechanical properties than that of μ-TiC due to its small size.