Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173

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Materials Science and Engineering A

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Effect of spark plasma sintering temperature on microstructure and

mechanical properties of an ultrafine grained TiAl intermetallic alloy
Y.Y. Chen a , H.B. Yu a , D.L. Zhang b,∗ , L.H. Chai a
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
b
Waikato Centre for Advanced Materials (WaiCAM), Department of Engineering, Hillcrest Road, The University of Waikato,
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of spark plasma sintering (SPS) temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties
Received 4 January 2009 of a bulk solid ultrafine grained gamma TiAl alloy produced by SPS of an ultrafine structured Ti/Al com-
Received in revised form 22 June 2009 posite powder with a nominal composition of Ti–47 at.%Al has been investigated. The Ti/Al composite
Accepted 25 June 2009
powder was produced using high energy mechanical milling. It was found that an SPS temperature of
800 ◦ C led to the completion of the reactions needed for reaching the phase equilibrium and formation
of a nanostructure with grain sizes in the range of 50–100 nm. However, this SPS temperature was not
Keywords:
sufficient to achieve a nearly full density of the compact or a high level of interparticle bonding. Increas-
Spark plasma sintering
Titanium aluminide
ing the SPS temperature from 800 to 900 ◦ C caused a significant increase of the density and the level of
Ultrafine grained structure interparticle bonding while still maintaining grain sizes of <500 nm. The bulk TiAl alloy produced under
Mechanical properties this condition had a good compression yield strength, fracture strength, bending strength and plastic
High energy mechanical milling strain to fracture of 1722, 1963, 610 MPa and 4%, respectively. Increasing the SPS temperature from 900
to 1100 ◦ C caused significant coarsening of the TiAl grains which led to a clear decrease in yield strength
and hardness and a slight increase in ductility.
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction rapid solidification. Once the starting microstructure of the powder

Gamma (␥)-TiAl intermetallic based alloys are important engi-
neering materials with a great potential of being used to replace
nickel based superalloys, titanium alloys and other high tem-
perature alloys for making parts for aerospace and automotive
applications [1–8]. This is mainly due to their high specific strength
and stiffness, high strength retention at elevated temperatures and
high creep resistance at temperatures of up to 900 ◦ C. The factors
that limit the alloys from being widely used include their low room
temperature ductility and elevated temperature formability. It has
also been demonstrated that refining near gamma grains and/or the
lamellar colonies is an effective way of improving the ductility and
formability of the material [1,5,9–11].
Powder metallurgy (PM) is a favourable process for synthesizing
ultrafine grained and nanostructured TiAl based alloys and form-
ing near-net shaped components out of such alloys. In contrast of
casting and mechanical forming, PM allows the use of nanostruc-
tured or ultrafine structured powders and nanopowders produced
using various processes such as high energy mechanical milling and
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +64 7 838 4783; fax: +64 7 838 4835.
E-mail address: d.zhang@waikato.ac.nz (D.L. Zhang).
particles is already at the scale of nanometers or submicrometer,
it is relatively easy to achieve nanostructure or ultrafine grained
structure in the bulk solid. In using ultrafine structured or nanos-
tructured powders to produce bulk nanostructured or ultrafine
structured bulk materials or components, there are two major tasks
in consolidating the powders: (a) to achieve nearly full densification
and interparticle bonding; (b) to control the microstructure coars-
ening at the minimum. Among different consolidation techniques,
spark plasma sintering (SPS) has been proven to be a promising
technique with the potential of completing both tasks effectively
[12–19]. SPS is a combination of pulse current heating and hot
pressing. This technique has already been successfully used by sev-
eral groups of researchers in synthesizing bulk TiAl inermetallic
based alloys with some of them being nanostructured or ultra-
fine structured [14–19]. In most of these studies, pre-alloyed TiAl
based powders produced by atomisation or by mechanical alloying
were used. In this study, we utilised a combination of high energy
mechanically milling (HEMM) and SPS to produce TiAl based inter-
metallic alloy samples with a nominal composition of Ti–47 at.%Al.
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of SPS temperature
on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the bulk TiAl
based intermetallic alloy with nanocrystalline or ultrafine grained
(UFG) microstructures.

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2009.06.056
 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173 167

2. Experimental procedure The compression and three-point bending tests were per-
formed using an INSTRON mechanical testing machine with
A Ti/Al composite powder with a nominal composition of cylindrical compression of test specimens with dimensions of
Ti–47 at.%Al was produced by high energy mechanical milling ␾3 mm × 4.5 mm, and rectangular three-point bending test spec-
(HEMM) of a mixture of Ti powder (99.9% pure, average particle size imens with dimensions of 3 mm × 4 mm × 20 mm. The cross-head
150 ␮m) and Al powder (99.9% pure, average particle size 50 ␮m) speed for both types of tests was 0.5 mm/min. The bending strength
under high purity argon. The HEMM was done using a PM 4000 of the three-point testing specimens was calculated using the fol-
Restch planetary ball mill with a stainless steel vial containing 100 g lowing equation:
of Ti/Al powder mixture, 0.63 wt.% of stearic acid which was added
3PL
as a process control agent, and 75 stainless steel balls with a diam- = (1)
2bh2
eter of 12.5 mm. The ball to powder weight ratio was 6:1. Before
milling, the vial was sealed in a glove box filled with high purity where P is the load at the point of fracture, L is the span between
argon to ensure the milling was done under an inert atmosphere. the two supporting points, and b and h are the width and thick-
The milling process consisted of first milling the powders for 24 h ness of the specimen, respectively. For each data, three specimens
with a low rotation speed of 100 rpm to thoroughly mix the pow- were tested to produce an average value. The Vickers microhard-
ders, and subsequent high energy mechanical milling the powder ness tests were performed using a load of 10 g force and loading
mixture for a net time of 12 h with a high rotation speed of 300 rpm. time of 15 s. Five indentations were made to produce one average
The milling machine was stopped for 30 min after every 30 min of microhardness data.
milling to let the vial cool to room temperature. This was to ensure
that the vial temperature was kept below 60 ◦ C. 3. Results
The consolidation of the milled powder was done using a DR.
Sinter 21050 SPS furnace. To prepare for the SPS process, the SPS 3.1. Microstructure
furnace was evacuated and back-filled with argon for three times,
and then evacuated to a vacuum of 2 Pa. The powder compact was Fig. 1(a) and (b) shows the XRD pattern of the 12 h milled
heated through generating spark plasma in the furnace first to Ti–47 at.%Al powder and corresponding SEM micrograph of a pow-
a temperature equal to T − 100 ◦ C at a rate of 100 ◦ C/min, where der particle in the powder. The XRD pattern only showed Al and
T is the designated sintering temperature. It was then heated to Ti peaks as major peaks, suggesting that the extent of the reac-
T − 50 ◦ C at a rate of 50 ◦ C/min, followed by heating to the des-
ignated sintering temperature at a rate of 25 ◦ C/min. The furnace
was held at the sintering temperature for 5 min, and then its power
was switched off and the sample cooled with the furnace. A uniax-
ial pressure of 50 MPa was applied to the powder compact in the
whole duration of heating and sintering the powder compact. Four
sintering temperatures were used: 800, 900, 1000 and 1100 ◦ C. The
sintered samples were cylindrical disks with a diameter of 30 mm
and thickness of 6–7 mm.
The bulk solid disks produced by SPS were cut using an electric
discharge machining (EDM) cutter to produce the metallography
and chemical analysis samples and the samples for compression,
three-point bending and hardness tests, respectively. The chemical
composition of the sintered samples including the oxygen level was
determined using Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP)–Atomic Emis-
sion Spectrometry and the inert gas fusion method (for oxygen,
carbon and nitrogen contents) to be Ti–31.9 wt.%Al, 0.45 wt.%Fe,
0.06 wt.%Cr, 0.66 wt.%O, 0.48 wt.%C, 0.028 wt.%N. The substantial
iron content is likely due to the iron pick-up from the milling pro-
cess. The relatively high oxygen and carbon level is likely due to
the decomposition of the process control agent, the oxygen pick-up
during passivation of the milled powder, and possible carbon pick-
up during SPS. The ratio between Ti and Al in the sintered samples
is equivalent to Ti–45 at.%Al, which means that some Al was lost
during milling perhaps due to preferential sticking of some of the
starting Al powder particles onto the wall of the vial. The density
of the cut samples was measured using the Archimedes technique,
with the density of five samples from different locations being mea-
sured, giving an average value. The microstructures of the powder
particles and bulk SPS sintered samples were characterised using
X-ray diffractometry (XRD) (Philips X-Pert system with Cu K␣ radia-
tion) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Hitachi S-4700 SEM
equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer). For SEM exami-
nation, the polished surfaces of the sintered bulk solid samples were
etched with Krool solution (5 vol.%HNO3 + 3 vol.%HF + 92 vol.%H2 O).
The microstructure of the sintered samples was also characterised
using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Philips CM12 TEM).
Fig. 1. (a) XRD pattern of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder used for the SPS exper-
The TEM specimens were produced by electrolytic jet polishing of iments; (b) SEM backscattered electron image showing the typical microstructure
3 mm thin disks cut from the sintered samples. of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.% Al powder particles.
168 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173
Fig. 2. XRD patterns of bulk samples produced by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al
alloy powder at different temperatures: (a) 800 ◦ C; (b) 900 ◦ C; (c) 1000 ◦ C and (d)
1100 ◦ C.
tion between Al and Ti phases during milling was negligible. In
the meantime, the Al and Ti peaks exhibited shoulders, suggesting
that the milled powder particles contained Al(Ti) and Ti(Al) solu-
tions formed by the interdiffusion between Al and Ti phases during
milling. The SEM examination clearly showed that fine compos-
ite structure of Al and Ti phases with highly elongated Ti particles
being embedded in a matrix of Al phase was formed after the 12 h
milling. The thickness of the embedded Ti particles in the Al/Ti com-
posite was in the range of 0.1–1 ␮m, and the Al phase formed a
continuous matrix of the composite. Based on the broadening of
the XRD peaks of the different phases and the Schererr’s equation
[20], the grain sizes of the different phases are estimated to be in
the range of 20–100 nm. Since this paper focuses on the effect of
SPS temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties
of the sintered samples, the more detailed characterisation of the
microstructure of the Ti/Al composite powder particles is beyond
the scope of this paper.
Fig. 2 shows the XRD patterns of the bulk solid samples produced
by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al composite powder at different
temperatures. They clearly showed that with an SPS temperature
of 800 ◦ C, the Al, Ti, Al(Ti) and Ti(Al) phases in the as-milled pow-
ders were completely reacted during SPS, resulting in formation of
TiAl as the major phase, and Ti3 Al and Ti2 Al as the minor phases.
Increasing the SPS temperature from 800 to 1100 ◦ C had little effect
on the phase structure of the sintered samples, and only the frac-
tion of the Ti3 Al appeared to increase slightly, as shown by the XRD
patterns in Fig. 2.
With the SPS temperature of 800 ◦ C, the density of the sample
achieved was 3.7 g/cm3 (Table 1) which was equivalent to a rela-
tive density of approximately 94% by taking the theoretical density
of TiAl to be 3.95 g/cm3 . This means that the sample was not fully
densified, and this was confirmed by SEM examination (Fig. 3(a))
Table 1
Density, grain size range, microhardness, compression properties and bending strength of the bulk TiAl samples produced by SPS of 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder at different
temperatures.
SPS Temp. ( ◦ C) Density (g/cm3 ) Grain size range
800 3.7 50–100 nm
900 3.92 200–400 nm
1000 3.92 300–700 nm
1100 3.92 500 nm–1.5 ␮mb
a
BS = three-point bending strength.
b
The microstructure is a duplex structure, so the grain size range is only applicable to the equiaxed ␥-TiAl grains.
which showed a substantial fraction of pores in the sample. Once
the SPS temperature was increased to 900 ◦ C, the density of the
SPS sample reached 3.92 g/cm3 (Table 1) which was equivalent to
a relative density of approximately of 99%. This means that the
sample was almost fully densified, as confirmed by SEM exami-
nation (Fig. 3(b)) which did not show any obvious pores in the
microstructure. Increasing the SPS temperature from 900 to 1100 ◦ C
had little effect on the density of the sample (Table 1). SEM exam-
ination of the sintered samples (Fig. 3) revealed that there were a
small fraction of Ti rich regions in the microstructure. This might
be caused by the slight inhomogeneity of the as-milled powder
particles.
Microstructural examination using SEM and TEM (Figs. 4 and 5)
clearly showed the effect of SPS temperature on the microstruc-
ture of the sintered samples. As shown in Figs. 4(a) and 5(a),
with the SPS temperature of 800 ◦ C, the sintered sample exhib-
ited an equiaxed near-␥ structure with grain sizes typically in
the range of 50–100 nm. With increasing the SPS temperature
from 800 to 900 ◦ C, the type of microstructure remained to be
equiaxed near-␥ structure, but the grains became clearly coars-
ened with the range of grain sizes being increased to 200–400 nm
(Figs. 4(b) and 5(b)). Further increasing the SPS temperature to
1000 ◦ C caused further coarsening of the grains without changing
the type of microstructure, with the range of grain sizes reach-
ing 300–700 nm (Figs. 4(c) and 5(c)). When the SPS temperature
was increased to 1100 ◦ C, the sintered sample exhibited a duplex
structure consisting of further coarsened equiaxed TiAl grains and
colonies with a lamellar structure (Figs. 4(d and e) and 5(d and e)).
The sizes of the equiaxed TiAl grains were typically in the range of
500 nm–1.5 ␮m, while the sizes of the lamellar structured colonies
were typically in the range of 5–10 ␮m, as shown in Fig. 5(d) and
(e). The layer thickness of the lamellar structure was in the range
of 100–300 nm.
3.2. Mechanical properties
Fig. 6 shows the typical compression true stress–true strain
curves of specimens cut from the samples produced by SPS at dif-
ferent temperatures. All the specimens except those cut from the
sample produced with an SPS temperature of 800 ◦ C showed a sub-
stantial amount of plastic deformation and work hardening prior
to fracture. The specimens produced with the SPS temperature of
800 ◦ C showed a plastic yield point, but a negligible amount of
plasticity. The changes of yield strength ( 0.2 ), fracture strength
( f ,), plastic strain to fracture (εf ), bending strength and hard-
ness of the samples with SPS temperature are shown in Fig. 7 and
Table 1. With increasing the SPS temperature from 800 to 900 ◦ C, the
yield strength increased from 1610 to 1722 MPa, and, the fracture
strength increased from 1657 to 1963 MPa. In the meantime, the
bending strength also increased dramatically from 383 to 610 MPa,
and the strain to fracture in compression increased from 1.4% to 4%
(Table 1). With increasing the SPS temperature from 900 to 1100 ◦ C,
both the yield strength and fracture strength decreased monoton-
ically. On the other hand, the bending strength of the samples first
Microhard-ness (Hv)  0.2 (MPa)  f (MPa) ef (%) BSa (MPa)
718 1610 1657 1.4 383
686 1722 1963 4.0 610
669 1449 1852 5.3 517
591 1137 1833 6.5 600
 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173 169

Fig. 3. SEM backscattered electron images of unetched surfaces of bulk samples produced by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder at different temperatures: (a) 800 ◦ C
and (b) 900 ◦ C.

decreased and then increased with increasing the SPS tempera- SEM micrographs of the fracture surfaces of the compression test
ture. The average microhardness of the bulk solid samples showed specimens. As shown in Fig. 8, the roughness of the fracture sur-
a monotonic and almost linear decrease with increasing the SPS faces scaled with the grain sizes, suggesting that the fracture mode
temperature over the whole range of 800–1100 ◦ C. Fig. 8 shows the is likely to be intergranular fracture.

Fig. 4. SEM secondary electron images of the etched surfaces of bulk samples produced by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder at different temperatures: (a) 800 ◦ C;
(b) 900 ◦ C; (c) 1000 ◦ C; (d) and (e) 1100 ◦ C.
170 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173

Fig. 5. TEM bright field micrographs of the bulk samples produced by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder at different temperatures: (a) 800 ◦ C; (b) 900 ◦ C; (c) 1000 ◦ C;
(d) and (e) 1100 ◦ C.
 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173
Fig. 6. Typical true stress–true strain curves of the bulk samples produced by SPS
of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder at different temperatures: A1: 800 ◦ C; A2:
900 ◦ C; A3: 1000 ◦ C; A4: 1100 ◦ C.
Fig. 7. Changes of mechanical properties of the bulk samples produced by SPS
of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al powder as a function of the SPS temperature: (a)
compression yield strength and fracture strength; and (b) bending strength and
microhardness.
171
4. Discussion
4.1. Effect of SPS temperature on microstructure
In consolidating a Ti/Al composite powder to produce bulk TiAl
based alloy samples, the sintering process must fulfil the following
functions:
• Enable the completion of the reactions between Ti, Al and any
intermediate product phases formed during the initial Ti/Al reac-
tions to reach the equilibrium phase structure.
• Achieve nearly full density so that the fraction of residual pores
is minimised.
• Achieve almost full extent of interparticle atomic bonding so the
powder compact is turned into true solid with no or a very small
fraction of weak connections which may turn into pores when
the material is stressed.
Through XRD analysis of the sintered samples, this study con-
firms that the first function can be easily fulfilled by SPS of the
milled powder for only 5 min and at a relatively low temperature of
800 ◦ C. This can be attributed to the significant decrease of the tem-
peratures needed to activate the initial reactions between Ti and Al
and the subsequent reactions needed to get the equilibrium phase
structure by forming a very fine Ti/Al composite structure in the
powder particles through milling [21–24]. This suggests that it is
highly beneficial to process the Ti/Al powder mixture into fine Ti/Al
composite through HEMM prior to SPS of the powder compacts. In
the meantime, the fine Ti/Al composite structure also has another
two beneficial effects. The first effect is that the large area of Ti/Al
interfaces associated with the fine Ti/Al composite structure dras-
tically increase the number of the nucleation sites for formation
of the reaction products, leading to a much higher nucleation rate.
The other effect is that the fine Ti/Al composite structure limited the
space available for the growth of each of the grains of the reaction
products. Both effects can lead to very small grain sizes after the
reactions become compete. This is indeed confirmed by the XRD
analysis and SEM and TEM examination of the sintered samples
(Figs. 2, 4(a) and 5(a)). As an example, with a low SPS temperature
of 800 ◦ C and a short SPS time of 5 min, the sizes of TiAl and Ti3 Al
grains formed in the sintered sample are in the range of 50–100 nm,
being well in the grain size range of a nanostructure.
However, this study also clearly shows that an SPS temperature
of 800 ◦ C and an SPS time of 5 min are not sufficient to densify pow-
der compacts to produce nearly full dense solid samples. This is
evidenced by the relative low density of 94% of the sintered sample
(Table 1) and obvious residual pores in its microstructure (Fig. 3(a)).
It is also likely that this condition is not sufficient for achieving the
full extent of interparticle bonding, as indicated by the significant
increase in both strength and ductility of the sample with increas-
ing the SPS temperate from 800 to 900 ◦ C (Table 1 and Fig. 7). This
point is further discussed in Section 4.2.
4.2. Effect of SPS temperature on mechanical properties
As shown by the SEM and TEM examination of the bulk alloy
samples, increasing the SPS temperature from 800 to 900 ◦ C causes
a significant increase of the sizes of TiAl equiaxed grains from
50–100 nm to 200–400 nm. This increase of the grain sizes of TiAl
should cause a clear decrease of the compression yield strength
based on the Hall-Petch relationship between strength and grain
size. However, the average yield strength increases by 7%. This
means that the strength increase caused by the increase of the den-
sity and the level of interparticle atomic bonding associated with
the SPS temperature increase is more significant than the negative
effect of grain coarsening on strength. As shown by the typical com-
172 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173
Fig. 8. SEM micrographs showing the typical fracture surfaces of compression test specimens cut from the bulk samples produced by SPS of the 12 h milled Ti–47 at.%Al
powder at different temperatures: (a) 800 ◦ C; (b) 900 ◦ C; (c) 1000 ◦ C and (d) 1100 ◦ C.
pression true strain-true stress curves in Fig. 6, the coarser grains
and better bonded microstructure of the bulk TiAl alloy sample
produced using an SPS temperature of 900 ◦ C facilitates substan-
tial compression plasticity and work hardening. The net effect of
this is a significant 18% increase in average fracture strength, which
is echoed by an even more significant (60%) increase in bending
strength. Since in bending half of the specimen is in tension, it is
expected that the bending strength of a sample is more sensitive
to the defects such as pores and weak interparticle atomic bond-
ing. Based on this consideration, it is not surprising to observe that
the bending strength of the bulk samples produced with the SPS
temperature of 800 ◦ C is fairly low.
With increasing the SPS temperature from 900 to 1100 ◦ C, the
yield strength decreases almost linearly, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
This can be attributed to the increase of the grain sizes of TiAl,
and suggests that the strength change of the sintered samples with
SPS temperature follows the Hall-Petch relationship. On the other
hand, this also shows that with a pressure of 50 MPa, a short SPS
time of 5 min and an SPS temperature of 900 ◦ C are sufficient for
consolidation of the composite powder compacts. Fig. 7 shows
that the decrease of the fracture strength and bending strength
with increasing the SPS temperature from 900 to 1100 ◦ C is not
as dramatic as the decrease of yield strength, even though the
grain sizes increase by two times. There are two possible rea-
sons for this: enhanced work hardening effect due to larger grains;
and formation of the duplex structure with the SPS temperature
of 1100 ◦ C. The enhanced work hardening effect associated with
increasing SPS temperature is clearly shown by the compression
true stress–true strain curves of the sintered samples (Fig. 6). The
beneficial strengthening effect of the duplex structure in the sin-
tered sample can be expected from the fine inter-lamellar spacing
of the lamellar structured colonies of only 100–300 nm. The fine
lamellar structured colonies are much more resistant to the dislo-
cation movement than coarse equiaxied TiAl grains. This effect of
the duplex structure might be the major reason for the observa-
tion (Fig. 7) that the fracture strength almost unchanged, and the
bending strength clearly increases by 16%, despite the equiaxed TiAl
grain sizes are almost doubled with increasing the SPS temperature
from 1000 to 1100 ◦ C.
Overall, this study clearly shows that the increase of SPS temper-
ature from 800 to 900 ◦ C clearly causes the essential improvement
of the quality of the consolidated TiAl alloy bulk samples despite the
associated coarsening of the grains. This quality improvement com-
bined with the beneficial effect of ultrafine microstructure leads to
attractive mechanical properties of the TiAl alloy. The samples pro-
duced with the SPS temperature of 900 ◦ C have a high compression
yield strength and fracture strength (1722 and 1963 MPa, respec-
tively), high bending strength (610 MPa), fairly good compression
ductility (4%) and still high hardness (686 Hv). The compression
yield strength of the best quality ultrafine grained (UFG) TiAl sam-
ples produced in this study is higher than that of the similar samples
with coarser grains produced by Bohn et al. [10], but slightly lower
than that of the nanostructured TiAl samples produced by Calderon
et al. [14]. All samples have been made using powder metallurgy
processes. On the other hand, similar to what has been reported
by Bohn et al. [10], the yield strength of the UFG TiAl samples pro-
duced by SPS is three times of the yield strength of coarse grained
TiAl samples with similar compositions produced by either casting
[10] or by conventional powder metallurgy [24].
Due to the very high oxygen and carbon level in the samples,
it is not expected that the samples would show any tensile duc-
tility, and this problem has to be solved by lowering the oxygen
and carbon level of the starting powder to below 0.1 wt.% [7]. The
recent study by Couret et al. [16] on the mechanical properties of
Ti–47 at.%Al–2 at.%Cr–2 at.%Nb alloy samples produced by SPS of a
low oxygen pre-alloyed powder shows very promising optimum
room temperature tensile ductility of 2.3%. This finding suggests
that it is highly possible to produce UFG TiAl based alloy samples
 Y.Y. Chen et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 525 (2009) 166–173 173

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New Zealand, for financial support.