The formation mechanism of Ti3SnC2 was evaluated in the present work. A stoichiometric ratio of a Ti-Sn-C powder mixture was prepared and milled for 50 h. To synthesize and detect intermediate reactions, a 50 h milled sample was thermally analyzed by STA. XRD instrument was utilized to detect phases of powder samples and the microstructure of the final product was obtained by SEM. The results showed that only Ti6Sn5 and Ti5Sn3 with Fe3Sn2 formed after 50 h milling, and no peaks related to MAX phases were found. To detect the reaction mechanism, the 50 h milled powder after STA analysis was characterized by XRD. Many intermediate reactions such as TixSny, TiC, and Ti2SnC formations took place. The melting of FexSny during STA analysis promoted the Ti3SnC2 formation. These results confirmed that Ti3SnC2 formation is not happened by a single reaction and many intermediate phases must be formed and Ti3SnC2 was synthesized after 50 h ball milling and thermally treated by STA analysis to 1400 ◦C.
