Abstract
The structural, thermal, electrical and mechanical properties of fully dense B4C ceramics, sintered using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), were studied and compared to the properties of B4C ceramics previously published in the literature. New results on B4C’s mechanical responses were obtained by nanoindentation and ring-on-ring biaxial strength testing. The findings contribute to a more complete knowledge of the properties of B4C ceramics, an important material in many industrial applications.
Highlights
Boron carbide (B4 C) is an important ceramic material and plays a significant role in many industrial applications, such as abrasives, materials for nuclear plants or protective materials for ballistic impact.The choice of B4 C in numerous applications is determined by its unique properties, such as low density, high hardness and elastic modulus, high neutron capture cross section and others [1]
As the deflection of the disk was not recorded during loading, the deformation of the B4 C samples was calculated using the measured Young’s modulus in the elastic beam equation, as it is well known that B4 C behave elastically and does not show any plasticity during static deformation at room temperature [83,84]
To 1800 ◦ C in 20 min under a minimal pressure of 16 MPa, dwelled for 10 min during which a pressure of 40 MPa was fully applied, the temperature was increased to 2150 ◦ C and dwelled at this sintering temperature for 10 min before cooling down to room temperature
Summary
Boron carbide (B4 C) is an important ceramic material and plays a significant role in many industrial applications, such as abrasives, materials for nuclear plants or protective materials for ballistic impact. While B4 C exhibits high elastic moduli, determined by the atomic bonding in the compound, the extremely rigid framework arising from the covalently bonded icosahedra and chain units leads to their refractory nature and extreme hardness [27]. The fracture toughness, measured using the length of the cracks initiated from the corners of the Vickers impressions, is not very high and reported to be in the range between 2 to 3.5 MPa m1/2 depending on the grain size of B4 C [40,50]. The indentation hardness of B4 C single crystals or polycrystalline ceramics was reported to be around 39–55 GPa as measured using a Berkovich indenter [54,55,56].
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