Microstructure, Mechanical Characteristics, and Wear Performance of Spark Plasma Sintered TiB-SiN as Affected by BN Doping.

This study aims to analyze the effect of boron nitride (BN) additive (3-6%) on the densification, microstructure, mechanical properties, and wear performance of TiB-15%SiN and TiB-30%SiN sintered composites. When the BN (3%) was added to the TiB-30SiN composite, the density increased to 99.5%, hardness increased to 25.2 MPa, and the fracture toughness increased to 4.62 MPam. Microstructural analysis shows that in situ phases such as TiB help to improve the relative mechanical characteristics. However, raising the BN additive to 6% in the above-sintered composite reduces the composites' relative density and hardness. The tested sintered composites demonstrated that their superior wear resistance can be attributed to their increased density and hardness.