Titanium nitride ceramics have an intrinsic interest due to its optical and structural applications. However, the conditions for sintering of dense pieces are not still clarified. This research work is focused on the spark plasma sintering (SPS) of near-fully dense fine-grained TiN. The main goal is giving a response to a longstanding debate: can the external atmosphere favor sintering? Different sintering atmospheres, either vacuum or a nitrogen flow, have been used during SPS heating to this purpose. X ray diffraction analysis has showed the presence of TiN as the main phase with traces of Ti₄O₇ in optimal SPS conditions (1600 °C, one minute dwell time). Our results show that the use of a nitrogen flow while heating can improve sinterability very slightly, but mechanical properties are essentially unaltered within the experimental uncertainty. The hardness reaches values as high as 20GPa whereas fracture toughness can be evaluated around 4 MPam^1/2.

氮化钛陶瓷由于其光学和结构应用而引起了人们的兴趣。但是，致密块的烧结条件仍不清楚。这项研究工作的重点是几乎完全致密的细晶粒TiN的火花等离子体烧结（SPS）。主要目标是回应长期以来的争论：外部气氛是否有利于烧结？为此，在SPS加热过程中使用了不同的烧结气氛（真空或氮气流）。X射线衍射分析表明存在TiN作为主要相，并伴有痕量的Ti ₄ O _7。在最佳SPS条件下（1600°C，一分钟的停留时间）。我们的结果表明，在加热时使用氮气流可以稍微改善烧结性，但在实验不确定性范围内，机械性能基本保持不变。硬度值高达20GPa，而断裂韧性可在4 MPam ^1/2左右评估。