Synthesis, characterization and material properties of titanium carbide nanocomposite derived from biochar
Introduction
Structural ceramics, for potential applications in high temperature environments need to exhibits high chemical stability, oxidation resistance, resistance to creep deformation and cavitation at interfaces, low volatility, sufficient toughness at ambient and thermal shock resistance [1]. A typical transition metal carbide such as titanium carbide (TiC) poses these properties that made it an important synthetic engineering material to be used as a reinforcing phase in composites and superalloys [2], [3]. Thus, TiC can be used for cutting materials, abrasive and anti-wear materials, aerospace materials, as substitute for tungsten carbide in cermets and so on.
Conventional synthetic routes for titanium carbide via sintering process coupled with or without other methods such as mechanical alloying [3], [4], thermal plasma processing reported by Tong et al. [5], liquid magnesium reduction of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) [6], gas phase reaction of TiCl4 and gaseous hydrocarbons [7], direct chemical reaction of Titanium (Ti) element and carbon (C), self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) [8], [9], carbothermal reduction of TiO2 and carbon, etc., have been used. Carbothermal reduction process of titanium oxide (TiO2) and carbon in controlled atmosphere, that is inert or vacuum [10], [11], at high temperatures (~1700–2300 °C) for long residence time (10–24 h) has been largely used for TiC production [12]. For catalytic applications, TiC hybrid material with high specific surface area and low particle sizes than the bulk material, is required. Hence, it is important to develop a cost effective method of preparing nano sized titanium carbide using inexpensive chemical precursors to enable TiC bulk production and utilization. Titanium alkoxides are largely used as titanium source for the synthesis of nanosized TiC though sol gel method. Renewable biopolymers as equally effective unconventional carbon source are being considered, for their cost effectiveness, availability and abundance [13], [14].
In this work, the feasibility of preparing titanium oxycarbide (TiOxCy) or TiC nanocomposites using biochar as renewable carbon source and solgel derived titania were precursors using via carbothermal reduction, was assessed for homogeneity and densification of reactants on structural morphology.
Section snippets
Synthesis of TiC ceramic nanomaterials via sol-gel procedure
About 10 ml titanium isopropoxide and 50 ml of 2-propanol were poured together in a 250 ml beaker and stirred for 10 min to obtain homogeneous mixture. To the stirring mixture, milled biochar (4.22 g) was added and stirred for further 30 min. Formic acid was added dropwise to the solution mixture and then afforded additional 30 min for the mixture to hydrolyse. Dark greyish TiOxCy sol was left to age for 24 h and then oven dried at 60 °C overnight. The dried product was designated TiOxCy (1)
SEM analysis
The SEM images shown in Fig. 1 indicating the surface morphology of TiC-1 sample in Fig. 1 illustrate agglomerated nanoparticle that have turned into a nanospheres.
These sphere have grown and fused together into cage-like structures of globules, shown in 1 (i), or tubules in 1 (ii) of inserted high magnification images. Elemental analysis of selected areas depicts high atomic percentage of Ti element in globule compared with tubule structures. Fig. 2 exhibits similar morphologies as those
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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