Influence of kinetic factors on preparation of boron carbide by magnesiothermic self-propagation synthesis

Abstract

The adiabatic temperature is an accepted thermodynamic criterion for the occurrence of the magnesiothermic self-propagation synthesis (SHS) reaction, but the actual experimental situation is often more complicated. In this paper, the influence of kinetic factors was investigated in the SHS process by varying the experimental conditions of Mg powder particle size and sample pressure. The results show that even if the experimental raw materials were the same, the different physical states of the raw materials could lead to completely different reaction endpoints. It was found that the reaction could not be initiated when the particle size of Mg powder was larger than 96 µm. The finer magnesium powder and higher sample pressure would accelerate the reaction and reduce by-products, but also increase the evaporation and dissipation of the raw material. The results show that the size of magnesium powder near 58 µm and the sample pressure of 30 MPa were suitable experimental conditions.

Keywords

sample pressure / Mg particle size / magnesiothermic self-propagation synthesis / kinetic factors / boron carbide

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