Mechanical Behavior of the Cr3C2 Compound at High Pressure and High Temperature

In the present study, we present a novel method to sinter Cr3C2 powders under high pressure without any addittives. The sintering Cr3C2 samples were charaterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), relative density measurements, Vicker’s hardness tests and Fracture toughness tests. The reasults show that Cr3C2 powders could be sintered to be bulk under the conditions of 3-5 GPa, 800-1200 °C and the heat preservation for 15 min. Moreover, the sintering body of Cr3C2 compound with the relative density of 99.84% by simultaneously tuning the pressure-temperature conditions exhibited excellent mechanical properties: a Vickers hardness of 20.3 GPa and a fracture toughness of ~8.9 MPam1/2. These properties were much higher than that by using the previous methods. The temperature condition obtained good mechanical properties in the experiment was about 1/3 lower than that using any other methods owing to the high pressure.