Spark Plasma Sintering of Boron Carbide Using Ti₃SiC₂ as a Sintering Additive

Abstract

Boron carbide has unique properties for wide application possibilities; however, poor sinterability limits its applications. One approach to overcome this limitation is the addition of secondary phases into boron carbide. Boron carbide based composite ceramics are produced by the direct addition of secondary phases into the structure or via reactive sintering using a sintering additive. The present study investigated the effect of Ti₃SiC₂ addition to boron carbide by reactive spark plasma sintering in the range of 1 700–1 900 °C. Ti₃SiC₂ phase decomposed at high temperatures and reacted with B₄C to form secondary phases of TiB₂ and SiC. The results demonstrated that the increase of Ti₃SiC₂ addition (up to 15 vol%) effectively promoted the densification of B₄C and yielded higher hardness. However, as the amount of Ti₃SiC₂ increased further, the formation of microstructural inhomogeneity and agglomeration of secondary phases caused a decrease in hardness.

Keywords

reactive sintering / SPS / boron carbide / MAX phase

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