ABSTRACT
Other additives such as Fe, Ti, B, Mg, Co, Ni and Cu have also been used, with various degrees of improvement in sintering behavior and mechanical properties. Aluminum and Al-containing compounds such as AlF3 and Al2O3 were also found to be effective for the densification of B4C. In view of specific properties and potential applications of B4C ceramics, it was meaningful to investigate whether dense B4C ceramics can be fabricated through liquid-phase sintering under relatively low temperature. However, reports about B4C ceramics with Al2O3/La2O3 aids were scarce. In the present work, B4C ceramics with high performance were fabricated with Al2O3/La2O3 served as sinter additives. The main purpose of present work was to examine effectiveness of Al2O3/La2O3 system served as densification sintering aids for B4C ceramics. Another aim was to investigate how Al2O3/La2O3 content influence relative density, micro-structure and sintering behavior of B4C ceramics.
