Synthesis of titanium nitride nanopowder at low temperature from the combustion synthesized precursor and the thermal stability

Highlights: • TiN nanopowders were produced from a combustion synthesized precursor. • The morphology of TiN was uniform with diameters ranging from 30 to 50 nm. • The synthesized TiN nanopowder exhibited high thermal stability in air. - Abstract: Titanium nitride (TiN) nanopowder with uniform morphology was prepared combining low temperature combustion synthesis (LCS) and carbothermal reduction and nitridation method. The prepared TiN nanopowder were well-distributed spherical particles ranging from 30 to 50 nm. According to the thermodynamic calculation, the temperature and the reaction atmosphere are important factors. In the experiment, the experimental temperature was set at 1000–1200 °C and the nitrogen atmosphere with the partial pressure of 0.1 MPa was purified by carbon. The phase and microstructure of the sample were characterized by XRD, SEM and FTIR. TG–DTA was adopted to investigate the reaction mechanism. The result showed that TiN was synthesized without intermediate phase formation at or above 1100 °C. The lattice parameter of TiN synthesized at 1100–1200 °C (a = 4.240–4.241 Å) agreed well with the theoretical value (a = 4.241 Å). Furthermore, TiN nanopowder exhibited good thermal stability and the oxidation started from 400 °C in air