Chapter 7 **Titanium Carbide (TiC) Production by Mechanical Alloying 115**

Héctor Enrique Jaramillo Suárez, Nelly Alba de Sanchez and Julian Arnaldo Avila Diaz

Preface

Powder technology is an interdisciplinary area that provides technological solutions to sev‐ eral application fields. Several aspects of powder technology are addressed in the research and development of new materials, especially in engineering and materials science, as a matter of priority. The subject area also covers the physics and chemistry of powders, in‐ cluding synthesis and processing and the consequences of the methodologies used in the final properties of the materials obtained. It also involves other related matters, such as ad‐ justments of equipment design and operation, industrial testing, instrumentation, mathe‐ matical modeling, etc. Therefore, the relationship between the various fields of basic and applied science with industrial demands promotes important technological advances.

Powder technology involves several issues, but it focuses on the particulate materials at any stage of production, such as the characteristics of the precursor raw materials, particle size and shape, porosity and specific surface area of the powders, chemical and physical proper‐ ties in the interface and interphase of components, processes of adhesion and agglomera‐ tion, synergy among the phases in composites, compacting, flowing, sintering, and densification processes, parallel reactions during processing, and other properties that influ‐ ence the final properties of produced materials. The main goal of this book is to outline the current state of the art in powder technology, with emphasis on two generic types of materi‐

*Powder Technology* contains eight peer-reviewed chapters organized in two sections. Section 1 contains four chapters concerning metal and metal-containing composites. Chapter 1 presents several results on the synthesis of tungsten and nickel nanopowders by reduction of corresponding oxides in hydrogen–nitrogen and propane–air plasmas. The methodology produces metals with specified properties, including spheroid shapes for nanoparticles,

On the other hand, Chapter 2 describes the use of the multiparticle finite element method as an efficient model to investigate the compaction of aluminum/silicon carbide core–shell composites. Various macro- and microproperties, such as relative density, stress, particle de‐ formation, mass transfer, and interfacial behaviors, were characterized and analyzed. It is shown that the compaction stage follows a densification mechanism driven by particle rear‐ rangement originated from unbalancing low forces among the interparticles. The informa‐ tion available can be a valuable reference for the production of several particulate materials. In sequence, Chapter 3 reviews methodologies concerning the insertion of graphene and carbon nanotubes in metal matrixes to obtain reinforced composites for industrial applica‐ tions. The two-dimensional structure and high specific surface area of the graphene make this material type the most appropriate for matrix reinforcements in composite structures, even at very low content addition, mainly if compared to particulate carbon-based materi‐ als. It is demonstrated that the use of metallic salts as metallic precursors dissolved into sol‐

als: metals and metal-containing composites as well as non-metal materials.

which is of special interest for application in additive technologies.
