Synthesis of nano-sized titanium diboride in a melt of anhydrous sodium tetraborate

X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and elemental analysis were used to study the interaction of titanium powder with finely powdered boron of particle size 10?C20 ??m in Na₂B₄O₇ ionic melt, in the temperature range 973?C1088 K, at the 5?C10 h contact duration. The TiB₂ formation was shown to occur at the temperatures 1018 K or above, that is, at the borax melting temperature. According to the scanning electron microscopy, theTiB₂ powder consists of the 70?C75 nm particles, and its coherent scattering region calculated from the XRD data amounts to 55 nm.