Spark plasma sintering of agglomerated vanadium carbide powder

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is an emerging powder consolidating technique which promises high potential capabilities to process refractory ceramics with properties previously unattainable. As the first step in studying the applicability of this technique to the processing of tailored ceramic structures, the validity of SPS to consolidate refractory carbides with controllable porosity is investigated. Vanadium carbide (V8C7) is chosen as a studied material. The structure, thermal and mechanical properties of the V8C7 powder pellets produced by SPS are analyzed and discussed in the paper. The attained properties of the processed ceramic material are in particular suitable for applications where high electrical conductivity and strength at high melting temperatures, low thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion coefficient are needed.