The effect of Si on the microstructure and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered boron carbide Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 2017 Elsevier Inc. Fully dense boron carbide discs were achieved by spark plasma sintering boron carbide powders with 10 wt% silicon. The silicon did not diffuse into boron carbide grains to produce a solid solution of Si-doped boron carbide; instead the silicon reacted with impurities in the starting powder to form -SiC and borosilicate glass. The resultant new phases facilitated densification of the multiphase ceramic through liquid phase-assisted sintering. The resultant material exhibits improved hardness (34.3 GPa Vikers hardness under 1 kg load) with toughness comparable to both Si-free and commercially available boron carbide.

published proceedings

  • Materials Characterization

author list (cited authors)

  • Ma, L., Xie, K. Y., Toksoy, M. F., Kuwelkar, K., Haber, R. A., & Hemker, K. J.

citation count

  • 26

complete list of authors

  • Ma, Luoning||Xie, Kelvin Y||Toksoy, Muhammet F||Kuwelkar, Kanak||Haber, Richard A||Hemker, Kevin J

publication date

  • December 2017