Flash spark plasma sintering of pure TiB2

A Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) furnace was used to Flash-Sinter (FS) pure titanium diboride (TiB2) powder. A pre-sintering green body (Ø= 20 mm, relative density ?60%) was used for the Flash-SPS using a dieless configuration with current passing entirely across the sample. The results show that the samples were densified in very short time (< 60 seconds) up to 87% of theoretical density. TiB2 obtained by Flash-SPS was characterized using XRD and SEM analysis.