Influence of process parameters of aluminothermic reduction process on grain refinement of in-situ Al/ TiB2 composites

This paper reports the effect of process variables such as holding time, addition time on grain refinement on in-situ Al/TiB2 composite and also size of the formed TiB2 particle size. The in-situ composites were fabricated by flux assisted synthesize route using potassium hexafluorotitanate (K2TiF6) and potassium fluoroborate (KBF4) salts as precursors. The composites were produced with respect to different holding time varies from 20 min to 40 min and also for different addition times of precursors 10 min to 30 min at 700 degrees C. The resulting composites were characterised by microstructure examination and size of particles. The TiB2 particles are segregated by crushing and followed by acidic immersion. From the results, effects of the process parameter on the particle formation and particle sizes on grain refinement of in-situ Al/TiB2 were investigated. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.