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.
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The authors would like to thank YOK (MEVLANA 2018-9999- Project-Based International Exchange Programme) for financial support in international collaboration.
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Biçer, H., Tuncer, M., Göçmez, H. et al. Spark Plasma Sintering of Boron Carbide Using Ti3SiC2 as a Sintering Additive. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol.-Mat. Sci. Edit. 39, 645–650 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-024-2921-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-024-2921-7