Presented is a study on the preparation, via original precursor solution chemistry, of intimately mixed composite nanocrystalline powders in the system gallium nitride GaN-titanium nitride TiN, atomic ratio Ga/Ti = 1/1, which were subjected to high-pressure (7.7 GPa) and high-temperature (650, 1000, and 1200 °C) sintering with no additives. Potential equilibration toward bimetallic compounds upon mixing of the solutions of the metal dimethylamide precursors, dimeric {Ga[N(CH3)2]3}2 and monomeric Ti[N(CH3)2]4, was studied with 1H- and 13C{H}-NMR spectroscopy in C6D6 solution. The different nitridation temperatures of 800 and 950 °C afforded a pool of in situ synthesis-mixed composite nanopowders of hexagonal h-GaN and cubic c-TiN with varying average crystallite sizes. The applied sintering temperatures were either to prevent temperature-induced recrystallization (650 °C) or promote crystal growth (1000 and 1200 °C) of the initial powders with the high sintering pressure of 7.7 GPa having a detrimental effect on crystal growth. The powders and nanoceramics, both of the composites and of the individual nitrides, were characterized if applicable by powder XRD, SEM/EDX, Raman spectroscopy, Vicker's hardness, and helium density. No evidence was found for metastable alloying of the two crystallographically different nitrides under the applied synthesis and sintering conditions, while the nitride domain segregation on the micrometer scale was observed on sintering. The Vicker's hardness tests for many of the composite and individual nanoceramics provided values with high hardness comparable with those of the individual h-GaN and c-TiN ceramics.
Keywords: Vicker’s hardness; gallium nitride; nanoceramics; sintering; titanium nitride.