Effect of mechanically modification process on boron carbide synthesis from polymeric precursor method

Abstract

In this study, a polymeric precursor was synthesized from industrial raw materials by the sol-gel method. The organic components in the polymeric chain structure were separated with the calcination process, and a reactant consisting of carbon and B2O3 was obtained. Mechanically modification process was applied to the reactant by a ball milling, which changed the structure of the reactant. It was observed that this process promoted the crystallinity and decreased the particle size of the reactant. In addition, the bimodal structure of the reactant was transformed to a bicontinuous structure. The reactant and a mechanically modified carbon-based reactant (MMCBR) were applied to heat treatment at 1400–1700 °C for 5 h under argon gas to investigate the effect of mechanically modification process on final products. A non-uniform powder morphology with polyhedral and rod-shaped B4C particles was obtained from reactant and MMCBR. While the B4C powder obtained from the reactant was agglomerated, no agglomeration was observed at the B4C powder obtained from MMCBR. As a result, the B4C powder synthesized in this fashion contained less free carbon as compared to that prepared with MMCBR.