Crystallographic relations between Ti₃SiC₂ and TiC

Ti₃SiC₂ is a so-called not-so-brittle ceramic that combines the merits of both metals and ceramics. However, many previous works demonstrated that its bonding nature and properties were strongly related to TiC. In this paper the crystallographic relations between Ti₃SiC₂ and TiC were established and described based on the transmission electron microscopy investigation on the Ti₃SiC₂/TiC interface in Ti₃SiC₂ based material. At Ti₃SiC₂/TiC interface, the following crystallographic relationships were identified: (111)TiC//(001)Ti₃SiC₂, (002) TiC//(104)Ti₃SiC₂, and [110]TiC//[110]Ti₃SiC₂. Based on the above interfacial relations an interfacial structure model was established. The structure of Ti₃SiC₂ could be considered as two-dimensional closed packed layers of Si periodically intercalated into the (111) twin boundary of TiC_0.67 (Ti₃C₂). The intercalation resulted in the transformation from cubic TiC_0.67 to hexagonal Ti₃SiC₂. In the opposite case, de-intercalation of Si from Ti₃SiC₂ caused the transformation from hexagonal Ti₃SiC₂ to cubic TiC_0.67. Understanding the crystallographic relations between Ti₃SiC₂ and TiC is of vital importance in both understanding the properties and optimizing the processing route for preparing pure Ti₃SiC₂.