Synthesis and characterization of chromium carbide (Cr3C2) nanoparticles

Abstract

Carbides, a very unique field of research, becoming very attractive and promising candidates in modern scientific and technological applications. Among these, chromium carbide exhibit extremely good strength, hardness, anti-erosion and corrosion properties, surface characteristic, etc. Also, chromium carbide acts as a grain growth inhibitor, widely used in composites by the incorporation of different secondary phase, such as fine grains of cemented carbides WC-Co and Al2O3 matrix. Because of these inherent properties chromium carbides are found excellent reinforcement for toughening purpose owing to its high Young’s modulus, making it most demanding material among carbides. These properties are further enhanced by synthesizing chromium carbide in nano scale. Nano grained materials exhibit superior properties than conventional one. The present work is an attempt to synthesize chromium carbide (Cr3C2) nanoparticles by thermochemical reaction route where chromium oxide (Cr2O3) is reduced to nano- chromium carbide (Cr3C2) at temperature range 600-800oC. The phase identification of the product phase(s) was done by X-ray diffraction and Transmission electron microscope techniques.