| Abstract Scope |
High entropy carbides (HEC), one of the high entropy ceramics, are solid solutions of four or more mono carbide ceramics. Some HECs have been shown to demonstrate better properties (such as hardness) than their binary carbide constituents. Typically, HECs are consolidated by techniques such as pressureless sintering, hot pressing, and spark plasma sintering (SPS), which usually takes significant amount of time or involves multi-steps (e.g. pre-sintering). In this work, a fast and more energy-efficient field assisted sintering technique, based on reactive flash sintering (RFS) is utilized to synthesize HECs such as (Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2Ti0.2Zr0.2)C and densify them into near-net shape samples in a single step. Influence of processing parameters like pressure, electrical field strength, current density, thermal insulation are investigated and the obtained products were characterized to understand phase formation, microstructure, physical and chemical properties. The promise and limitation of RFS of other similar high temperature ceramics will also be discussed. |