Polycrystalline Ti2AlC samples were synthesized by hot pressing of Ti, Al, TiC and active carbon powder mixtures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used for phase identification and microstructure evaluation. No other phase except Ti2AlC was detected in samples synthesized by hot pressing of the 0.5TiC/1.5Ti/1.0Al/0.5C powder mixtures at 1400degreesC for 1 and 3 h under a pressure of 30 MPa. The densities of these two samples were 96.1 and 98% of the theoretical value of pure Ti2AlC, respectively. The reason that the densities of these two samples were lower than the theoretical density of pure Ti2AlC is that pore existed in these two samples. At lower temperature of 1300degreesC, the speed of the reaction forming Ti2AlC was slow. While at higher temperature of 1500degreesC, Ti2AlC transformed to Ti3AlC2. So these two temperatures are not suitable for the fabrication of Ti2AlC. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.