Spark Plasma Sintering of Boron Carbide Using Ti3SiC2 as a Sintering Additive

Boron carbide has unique properties for wide application possibilities; however, poor sinterability limits its applications. One approach to overcome this limitation is the addition of secondary phases into boron carbide. Boron carbide based composite ceramics are produced by the direct addition of secondary phases into the structure or via reactive sintering using a sintering additive. The present study investigated the effect of Ti 3 SiC 2 addition to boron carbide by reactive spark plasma sintering in the range of 1 700–1 900 °C. Ti 3 SiC 2 phase decomposed at high temperatures and reacted with B 4 C to form secondary phases of TiB 2 and SiC. The results demonstrated that the increase of Ti 3 SiC 2 addition (up to 15 vol%) effectively promoted the densification of B 4 C and yielded higher hardness. However, as the amount of Ti 3 SiC 2 increased further, the formation of microstructural inhomogeneity and agglomeration of secondary phases caused a decrease in hardness.