FUNCTIONALLY GRADED TANTALUM/NIOBIUM CARBIDE MATERIALS Ceramic material with improved strength, durability, hardness, and fracture toughness for use in high temperature and/or corrosive applications. TECHNOLOGY SUMMARY TECHNOLOGY TYPE Hard materials resist wear, but are prone to fracture. Tough materials Ceramics resist fracture, but are susceptible to wear. Ideally, a material should Metallurgy possess a combination of high hardness and high fracture toughness, Material Science but designing such a material has proven difficult. A novel tantalum or STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT niobium carbide (TaC or NbC) results in a composite with superior - Early stage TaC prototype strength and fracture toughness. The material consists of two-phases, a demonstrated for certain wear hard carbide on the outside and a tough carbide in the interior. The applications and carbide substrate can be produced using conventional powder manufacturing process. processing methods to fabricate complex shapes and surface-treatment. - Novel nobium carbide The proposed material outperforms tungsten carbide in applications ceramic testing in process. that require hardness, fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance. IP PROTECTION FEATURES AND BENEFITS Nationalized PCT Issued in • Provides durable material that is suitable for high-temperature and the United States high-pressure applications. High-Toughness Zeta-Phase • Increases strength, hardness, and fracture toughness by up to three Carbides times that of Tungsten Carbide US8685874B2 • Able to manufacture components from a single piece of material. US Utility Patent Issued Methods of Sintering Dense Zeta-Phase Tantalum Carbide RECENT PUBLICATIONS US9896384B2 Meeks, G.J., Dalton, J.S., Sparks, T.D., Shetty, D.K. (2015). A functionally Additional Patent Pending in graded carbide in the Ta-C system. Journal of the American Ceramic Society. the United States and China 99(2):392-394. doi: 10.1111/jace.14045 Sygnatowicz, M., Cutler, R.A., Shetty, D.K. (2015). Ta4C3-x: A high fracture toughness carbide with rising- LEARN MORE crack-growth-resistance (r-curve) behavior. Journal of the American Reference Numbers: U-4451, Ceramic Society. U-5794, U-5881 Nick Wilkes INVENTOR PROFILE Technology Manager Dinesh K. Shetty, Ph.D., Professor - Materials Science and Engineering [email protected] Raymond A. Cutler, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor - Materials Science and 801-587-0515 Engineering DATE UPDATED: 1/22/2018 .