Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Combustion synthesis of Al2O3–TiC–ZrO2 nanoceramics by reactions in the TiO2–Al–C–ZrO2 system is a new method with advantages of simplicity and efficiency. In this work, the effect of ZrO2 nanoparticles on the thermodynamics of combustion synthesis of the TiO2–Al–C system is studied to obtain desired phases. The result of thermodynamic analysis shows that the adiabatic temperature Tad of the system stays at about 2327 K (the melting point of Al2O3) with the addition of ZrO2in the range of 0–15 wt% and the fraction of molten Al2O3 varied from 100% to 78%. The possible combustion products are discussed with an approach of an overlapped phase stability diagram of the Al–O–N, Ti–O–N, Zr–O–N, and C–O–N systems at 2300 K. It has been shown that the combustion product is a mixture of Al2O3–TiC–ZrO2, which coincides with the results obtained by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy.