Abstract
The B4C-C system was investigated to gain an understanding of the sintering behaviors of B4C. In order to get sintered density of 97% TD, sintering temperature of 225$0^{\circ}C$ was necessary. Since such a high temperature operation is actually difficult on a commercial basis, our objective was to examine the possibility of decreasing the sintering temperature by adding SiC. The addition of SiC in B4C increases the sintering rate about at 210$0^{\circ}C$ and results in a fine microstructure with more than 98% relative density on 55 wt% B4C-40wt% SiC-5 wt% C composition. The probability of liquid phase sintering was investigated, but the evidences of liquid phase formation were not observed with XRD and TEM observation. It was proposed that the addition of SiC and carbon to B4C reduce interface energy during sintering, which results in enhanced grain-boundary diffusion. Thus, the enhanced grain-boundary diffusion and retarded grain growth by SiC improve densification.
