Spark Plasma Sintering of Nano‐Sized TiN Prepared from TiO 2 by Controlled Hydrolysis of TiCl 4 and Ti(O‐i‐C 3 H 7 ) 4 Solution

Nano‐sized TiO 2 powders were prepared by controlled hydrolysis of TiCl 4 and Ti(O‐i‐C 3 H 7 ) 4 solutions and nitrided in flowing NH 3 gas at 700°–1000°C to form TiN. Nano‐sized TiN was densified by spark plasma sintering at 1300°–1600°C to produce TiN ceramics with a relative density of 98% at 1600°C. The microstructure of the etched ceramic surface was observed by SEM, which revealed the formation of uniformly sized 1–2 μm grains in the TiCl 4 ‐derived product and 10–20 μm in the Ti(O‐i‐C 3 H 7 ) 4 ‐derived TiN. The electric resisitivity and Vickers micro‐hardness of the TiN ceramics was also measured.