Synthesis of nanostructured carbon derived from the solid-state reaction between iron and boron carbide

In this work, new carbide-derived carbons (CDCs) generated by the solid-state reaction between Fe and B4C were produced as nanostructured powders. Thermodynamic calculations were used to define the composition range and the process window for the reaction. Initially, samples with Fe + 5 wt%B4C were produced by traditional powder metallurgy techniques to analyse the reaction between the materials. As CDC nanoflakes were found, the amount of B4C was increased in order to improve the graphite productivity and an acid treatment was used to extract the nanoflakes. The results showed that it is possible to use this method to obtain powders of nanostructured turbostratic graphite in high quantity (yield of ∼87%). This is the first method ever presented that allows obtaining 2D turbostratic graphite nanoflakes derived from the reaction between Fe and B4C as powders with potential applications in tribology and other fields yet to be explored. [Display omitted] •This work presents the first method of obtaining graphite nanoflakes from the Fe and B4C reaction.•Solid-stated synthesis is a low-cost method of obtaining carbide-derived carbon particles.•Nanoflakes with 10–500 nm length and few nanometers thick were obtained.•Graphite nanoflakes presented the 2D turbostratic nanostructure.