Conventional and two-step sintering of boron carbide ceramics with a sintering additive

Sintering refers to the consolidation of particulate matter into dense solids. Boron carbide is a material of choice for a wide variety of engineering applications, due to its unique properties. On the other hand, it is a highly covalent non-oxide ceramic, which has low diffusivity. Densification of boron carbide via thermally activated process is extremely hard and requires additional driving forces. In this study, the production of boron carbide with 0–20% Ti 3 SiC 2 by both single-step and two-step pressureless sintering was investigated. The resultant ceramics were subjected to density measurement and microstructure and phase characterization. Boron carbide samples with 20 vol% Ti 3 SiC 2 , which were held 3 h at 1750 °C, yield ~ 81% density regardless of the number of sintering steps. Ti 3 SiC 2 additive resulted in the formation of boron carbide–based composite with TiB 2 and SiC phases in all experiments.