A new thermally stable structural duplex Ni–TaC nanocomposite

Two phase Ni–TaC nanocomposites are prepared by devitrification of sputtered amorphous Ni63Ta23C14 (at.%) films. With a second phase carbide volume fraction around 35% the resultant microstructure is classified as duplex or dual phase. These new nanocrystalline materials are shown to exhibit exceptional thermal stability, which is for the first time described using existing duplex grain growth theory. They are further shown to possess outstanding mechanical properties with a typical hardness of 12 GPa.