microstructure and mechanical properties Hexagonal OsB2: Sintering

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The metastable high pressure ReB 2 -type hexagonal OsB 2 bulk ceramics was produced by spark plasma sintering. The phase composition, microstructure, and mechanical behavior of the sintered OsB 2 were studied by X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, TEM, SEM, EDS, and nanoindentation. The produced ceramics was rather porous and contained a mixture of hexagonal (∼80 wt.%) and orthorhombic (∼20 wt.%) phases as identified by X-ray diffraction and EBSD analysis. Two boron-rich phases, which do not contain Os, were also identified by TEM and SEM/EDS analysis. Nanoindentation measurements yielded a hardness of 31 ± 9 GPa and Young's modulus of 574 ± 112 GPa, indicating that the material is rather hard and very stiff; however, it is very prone to crack formation and propagation, which is indicative of a very brittle nature of this material. Improvements in the sintering regime are required in order to produce dense, homogeneous and single phase hexagonal OsB 2 bulk ceramics.

Xie, Z., Lugovy, M., Orlovskaya, N., Graule, T., Kuebler, J., Mueller, M., ... Cullen, D. A.

Hexagonal OsB2: Sintering, microstructure and mechanical properties Academic Article