ZHAO Lin ¹, WEI Hongkang ¹, ZHANG Yujun ², XIE Zhipeng ^{1, 3}, WANG Chang’an ^{1, 3}

(1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China; 2. Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, Jinan 250061, Shandong, China; 3. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramic and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

Abstract: ^10.8B₄C and ¹⁰B₄C powders were prepared by carbothermal reduction method. The influence of process parameters such as carbon source, B/C molar ratios, calcining temperature and milling time on the properties of ¹⁰B₄C powder was researched. X-ray diffractometer and Laser particle size analyzer were used to analyze phase composition and particle size, respectively. The results show that ^10.8B₄C powder with high purity and median particle diameter of 2.56 μm was prepared with carbon black as carbon source, B/C molar ratios of 6:7, calcining temperature of 1750 ℃ and milling for 5 h. ¹⁰B₄C powder with high properties could be prepared with the same process parameters.

Key words: carbothermal reduction; boron carbide; median particle diameter; milling