Compression behavior of nanocrystalline TiN

We have investigated the size-dependent high pressure behavior of nanocrystalline TiN using an angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction technique in a diamond-anvil cell at room temperature. No phase transition was observed during compression for each sample. A fit of the pressure versus volume data to a second Birch–Murnaghan equation yielded the following parameters for 16nm, 34nm and 80nm, zero-pressure volume, V0=75.77Å3, 75.98Å3 and 76.06Å3, bulk modulus, B0=320(7)GPa, 338(6)GPa and 287(3)GPa, respectively. This result along with a reanalysis of previous studies on TiN indicates that the bulk modulus first increases and then decreases with decreasing grain size. The compressibility of TiN has a minimum at ~34nm.