Stacking faults and grain boundaries in Ti3SiC2 were investigated by means of high-resolution electron microscopy. The stacking faults were found to result from the insertion of additional TiC layers, rather than the dislocation dissociation that was usual in other materials. The stacking faults with many TiC inserted layers could also be seen as being TiC platelets. No glass phase was formed at the large-angle grain boundaries of Ti3SiC2, thus demonstrating the weak directionality of bonding in Ti3SiC2. The results also indicated that the softening of Ti3SiC2 at high temperatures did not result from intergranular glass films, but instead from an intrinsic property of the Ti3SiC2. It was found that one grain contacted another across its base plane in most of the investigated grain boundaries.

Stacking Faults and Grain Boundaries of Ti3SiC2. R.Yu, Q.Zhan, L.L.He, Y.C.Zhou, H.Q.Ye: Philosophical Magazine Letters, 2003, 83[5], 325-31