Sintering Characteristics of Nickel Silicide Alloy

[ $Ni_2Si$ ] mixed powders were mechanically alloyed by a ball mill and then processed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). In the powder that was mechanically alloyed for 15minutes(MA 15 min), only Ni and Si were observed but in the powder that was mechanically alloyed for 30minutes(MA 30 min), $Ni_2Si$, Ni and Si were mixed together. Some of the MA 15 min powder and MA 30 min powder were processed by HIP under pressure of 150MPa at the temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$ for two hours and some of them were processed by SPS under pressure of 60 MPa at the temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$ for 60 seconds. Both methods completely compounded the powders to $Ni_2Si$. The maximum density of sintered lumps by HIP method was 99.5% and the maximum density of the sintered lump by SPS method was 99.3%. with the hardness of HRc 66 with the hardness of HRc 63. Therefore, the SPS method that can sinter in short time at low cost is considered to be more economical that the HIP method that requires complicated sintering conditions and high cost and the sintering can produce target materials in desired sizes and shapes to be used for thin film.

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