Syntheses and characterizations of cullet-clay-titanium nitride ceramics

Abstract

A series of ceramic based on composition of (60-x) cullet-40 clay-(x) TiN (0=x=6 mol %) has successfully been made by dry pressing technique followed by sintering at 1000 oC. The occurrence of crystalline phase is determined using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. The actual composition of ceramic is analyzed using Energy Dispersive of X-Ray Analysis (EDAX). Their surface morphology is observed under Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and the existence of molecular vibrational structure has been determined using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Meanwhile, the physical properties are measured in terms of their density by using Archimedes method and porosity by using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The mechanical properties are determined by means of Young’s Modulus and Vickers Hardness test for the ceramic’s strength and the ceramics hardness, respectively. The corrosion rate of the ceramics is characterized by using pH level technique. The DC conductivity of the samples at room temperature is measured using four-point probe method. It is found that the ceramic contain mostly of Silica and the phases are dominated by two major phases namely quartz and tridymite with TiN as minor phase. It is also found that the structural morphology is in the form of dendritic growth over the ceramic matrix. Several broad absorption peaks are observed using FTIR and it is found that the ceramic is dominated by the existence of Si-O peak around 1080 cm-1. It is found that the density of the ceramic samples is in range of 1.941-3.019 gcm-3 while the porosity is in the range of 10.43-14.59 m2g-1 and analysis shows that samples with higher TiN content exhibit optimum value. The mechanical strength is observed in the range of 195.4-522.6 MPa and the hardness is in the range of 113-181 GPa, depending on composition. The corrosion rate of the samples is found to increase with increasing pH level and the reaction mostly occurred after 10 days of test. The DC conductivity is in the order of 10-3 Sm-1, which generally indicates that this material is semiconductor in nature.