Effect of sintering aids on boron carbide sintering

The special physical characteristics of boron carbide (B4 C) allow its use in a wide range of application in engineering design. Despite of this, the densification during sintering step became the main drawback of the development of ceramics components. The present work deals with the role of sintering aids on the densification of boron carbide ceramics produced through pressureless and hot-pressing sintering. The applied sintering aids were, C+B2 O3+ Al2 O3, Ni and/or Ti. Dilatometry was used to assist hot-pressing and, C+B2 O3 + Al2 O3 were the sintering aids. In the both cases the sintering temperature was lowered to 2200 K and 2073 K, pressureless and hot pressing respectively. The results of hardness of about 35 GPa and densification of 99% theoretical density for hot-pressed material show the effectiveness of these sintering aids. So far as the obtained data from this work is concerned we may believe that is possible to produce boron carbide ceramics components with both high density and hardness with lower cost by lowering sintering temperatures, that is, 200 K for pressureless sintering and 350 K for hot-pressing. (author)