68
G. Walunj et al.
Results and Discussion
X-Ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD)
Figure 1 exhibits the XRD patterns for Ni-5TiC, Ni-10TiC, Ni-25TiC. It has been
clearly observed that the peak intensity of TiC increases with increasing TiC wt.%
percentage in Ni-TiC composite matrix. The XRD patterns of all Ni-TiC composites
show Ni (111), Ni (200), and Ni (220) peaks on the crystallographic plane of NiFCC, and Ni (111) shows the highest peak intensity. The intermetallic peak of Ni–Ti
and Ni 3 Ti has been not observed due to TiC is more stable, and Ni 3 Ti composites
lean on the in situ reaction temperature [6, 13]. Table 2 exhibits the grain size of
Ni calculated using the Scherrer equation. The increasing weight fraction of TiC in
the Ni matrix restricts grain growth of Ni by creating more nucleation sites that help
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95
0
23000
46000
69000
0
19000
38000
57000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95
0
8900
17800
26700
Ni-5TiC
Ni-5TiC
Ni-10TiC
Ni-10TiC
Ni-25TiC
2 theta
Ni-25TiC
Fig. 1 XRD graph and peak index Ni-5TiC, Ni-10TiC, Ni-25TiC
Table 2 Grain size of Ni in Ni-TiC composite and spark plasma sintering (SPS) parameters
No. Specimen ID Max. temperature
(°C)
Holding time
(min)
Pressure (MPa) Grain size Ni
(nm)
2
Ni-5TiC
900
5
65
55.03
3
Ni-10TiC
900
5
65
49.90
4
Ni-25TiC
900
5
65
40.90