Effect of Nitrogen Gas Flow Rate on Synthesis of Highly-Pure Titanium Nitride Nanopowders via Carbothermal Reduction and Nitridation

Abstract

In this work, titanium nitride nanopowders were prepared by the carbothermal reduction method. A mixture of titanium dioxide nanopowder and carbon black at molar ratio of 2.2:1 was milled using high energy ball milling (HEBM), heated up to 1300°C inside tube furnace with nitrogen gas flowing at different rates (100, 300, or 500 sccm). The structural characteristics show that the prepared nanopowders are polycrystalline with minimum particle size of 25-30 nm. These nanopowders showed high structural purity as no traces for elements other than titanium and nitrogen were detected with small inevitable amount of carbon. The absorption spectra of the prepared nanopowders were apparently sensitive to the flow rate of nitrogen gas inside vacuum chamber while the structural characteristics was less sensitive. This work can be very successful to produce highly-pure titanium nitride nanopowders at low production cost, high reliability and low complexity.