Enhancement of sinterability and mechanical properties of B4C ceramics using Ti3AlC2 as a sintering aid

Abstract

Boron carbide (B₄C) ceramics are currently the leading control rod materials in fast nuclear reactors and promising high temperature structural materials. However, several drawbacks such as poor sinterability and low toughness seriously limit their wide applications. In order to enhance the sinterability and mechanical properties of B₄C ceramics, titanium aluminum carbide (Ti₃AlC₂) was chosen as a new efficient sintering aid to densify B₄C ceramics using spark plasma sintering. Fully dense B₄C ceramics were obtained at a lower sintering temperature of 1500 °C by adding a small amount of Ti₃AlC₂. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties were enhanced remarkably. For B₄C ceramics sintered with 15 vol% Ti₃AlC₂, optimized mechanical properties were obtained with Vickers hardness of 40.2 GPa and indentation fracture toughness of 4.7 MPa m^1/2. These results indicate that Ti₃AlC₂ can be used as a novel sintering aid for the densification of B₄C ceramics.