Research Projects

Objective: To develop a pressureless sintering process which can help to synthesize MAX phases with high purity and in bench scale; To maintain the purity and increase the scale of production

Summary: MAX phases combine the properties of metals (such as good electrical and thermal conductivity, machinability, low hardness, thermal shock resistance and damage tolerance) with those of ceramics (such as high elastic moduli, high temperature strength, and oxidation and corrosion resistance) and can be used for many purposes like electric brushes, as high-speed railway pantograph pans and shaft shoes, and the like. Another important aspect of MAX phases is that they are the source for recently known advanced new materials 2D-MXenes. In recent days, various 2D-materials have appeared very promising in terms of their commercial use but still not successful, because of the unavailability of the suitable parent source to synthesize high quality 2D materials. MAX phase are the parent source of 2D-MXenes, for example, layered Ti3C2, Ti2C, V2C are the 2D-MXene and it can only be synthesized from Ti3AlC2, Ti2AlC and V2AlC MAX phases, respectively. Till now, there are 25-30 different MXene have been synthesized experimentally from their corresponding MAX phases and 70 MXene have been predicted theoretically. But only one or two companies in the world are currently supplying few MAX phases in limited quantity and at high price (approx. 8k to 10k USD per kg.). Therefore, the targeting is to synthesize MAX phases like Ti3AlC2, Ti2AlC, Ti2AlN with high purity (more than 95 %) in bench scale.