Synthesis of YB2C2 by high‐energy ball milling and reactive spark plasma sintering

X‐ray pure yttrium diborodicarbide (YB2C2) was synthesized for the first time via modified spark plasma sintering (SPS) using Y2O3, B4C, and carbon as starting materials. Homogeneous intermixing of the raw powder by high energy ball milling (HEBM) promoted the formation of YB2C2 powder with layered structure by boro/carbo‐thermal reduction. The average particle size of the synthesized powder at an optimum synthesis temperature (1625℃) was 568 nm. Small amount of YB2C was formed by consuming YB4 at and above 1625°C. The metal basis purity of the synthesized YB2C2 powder was 99.84%. X‐ray pure YB2C2 was obtained by densifying the synthesized YB2C2 powder at 1900°C for 60 minutes at a pressure of 80 MPa using SPS. This study reports a simple method for the fabrication of X‐ray pure rare earth metal diborodicarbides (ReB2C2).