Combustion Synthesis of (Ti,V)<sub>2</sub>AlC Solid Solutions

(Ti,V) 2 AlC solid solutions with Al 2 O 3 addition were produced by solid state combustion involving aluminothermic reduction in the mode of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). Starting materials included Ti/V 2 O 5 /Al/Al 4 C 3 and TiO 2 /V 2 O 5 /Al/Al 4 C 3 powder mixtures. Attempts were made to obtain (Ti 1- x V x ) 2 AlC with a broad substitution percentage. Combustion exothermicity was increased by increasing V 2 O 5 for the yield of a higher proportion of V at the substitution site, which not only increased the combustion temperature and reaction front velocity, but also facilitated the evolution of (Ti,V) 2 AlC. The Ti-containing samples showed higher reaction exothermicity and better product formation than those adopting TiO 2 . As a result, (Ti 1- x V x ) 2 AlC with x from 0.2 to 0.8 was produced from the samples composed of the Ti/V 2 O 5 /Al/Al 4 C 3 mixture. The (Ti,V) 2 AlC/Al 2 O 3 composites synthesized in this study exhibited a laminated microstructure with closely-stacked (Ti,V) 2 AlC slabs of about 0.30.8 μ m.