Effect of Additive Ti3SiC2 Content on Mechanical Properties of B4C–TiB2 Composites Ceramics Sintered by Spark Plasma Sintering
Abstract B4C-TiB2 composite ceramics with ultra-high fracture toughness were successfully prepared via spark plasma sintering at 1900℃ using B4C and Ti3SiC2 as raw materials. The results show that compared with pure B4C ceramics sintered by SPS, the hardness of B4C-TiB2 composite ceramics is decreased, but the flexural strength and fracture toughness are significantly improved, especially the fracture toughness has been improved by leaps and bounds. When the content of Ti3SiC2 is 30vol.%, the B4C-TiB2 composite ceramic has the best comprehensive mechanical properties: hardness, bending strength and fracture toughness are 27.28 GPa, 405.11 MPa and 18.94 MPa·m1/2, respectively. The fracture mode of the B4C-TiB2 composite ceramics is a mixture of transgranular fracture and intergranular fracture. Two main two reasons for the ultra-high fracture toughness are the existence of lamellar graphite at the grain boundary, and the formation of a three-dimensional interpenetrating network covering the whole composite.