Spark plasma sintered tantalum carbide: Effect of pressure and nano-boron carbide addition on microstructure and mechanical properties

▶ Spark plasma sintering was used to synthesize 100% dense TaC and TaC–1wt.% nano-size B4C. ▶ Addition of B4C aided densification and inhibited grain coarsening. ▶ High resolution TEM utilized to elucidate the sintering mechanism in TaC–nano B4C. ▶ Improvement in the mechanical properties was observed by B4C addition. TaC and TaC–1wt.% B4C powders were consolidated using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1850°C and varying pressure of 100, 255 and 363MPa. The effect of pressure on the densification and grain size is evaluated. The role of nano-sized B4C as sintering aid and grain growth inhibitor is studied by means of XRD, SEM and high resolution TEM. Fully dense TaC samples were produced at a pressure of 255MPa and higher at 1850°C. The increasing pressure also resulted in an increase in TaC grain size. Addition of B4C leads to an increase in the density of 100MPa sample from 89% to 97%. B4C nano-powder resists grain growth even at high pressure of 363MPa. The formation of TaB2/Carbon at TaC grain boundaries helps in pinning the grain boundary and inhibiting grain growth. The effect of B4C addition on hardness and elastic modulus measured by nanoindentation and the indentation fracture toughness has been studied. Relative fracture toughness increased by up to 93% on B4C addition.