Ultra-high hardness and enhanced toughness of lightweight high-purity B4C ceramics with impact-resistance via Ketjen Black additive

IF 11.6 2区材料科学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL

Carbon Pub Date : 2025-09-25 DOI:10.1016/j.carbon.2025.120866

Yanbin Zhang, Jian Wei, Xueting Li, Jiayi Hou, Zhuang Miao, Peng Wang, Yi Yao, Enhao Lv

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Abstract

In the field of high-performance ceramic materials, boron carbide (B₄C) is regarded as an ideal choice for protective armor and military applications due to its exceptional hardness, wear resistance, and lowest density. Nevertheless, the difficulty in sintering B₄C, along with the trade-off between hardness and toughness, greatly limits its applications. To improve the performance of B₄C ceramics, this study utilizes Ketjen black (KB) with ultrahigh conductivity and specific surface area as an additive. The KB-derived conductive network enhances spark plasma sintering (SPS) efficiency while maintaining the ultrahigh hardness and lightweight nature of high-purity B₄C ceramics. Experimental results demonstrate that the resulting B₄C ceramics contain only a small amount of residual carbon, without forming any secondary phases. Notably, with the addition of 4 wt% KB, the ceramic density remains at a low level of 2.48 g/cm³, while the mechanical properties show significant improvement. The Vickers hardness reaches 36.81 GPa, and the fracture toughness is 4.05 MPa·m^1/2. These combined properties represent one of the best performance levels currently achieved in high-purity B₄C ceramics. Additionally, the improved sintering performance enables the KB/B₄C ceramic to fully manifest its superior impact-resistance and anti-fragmentation capabilities. These findings provide valuable insights for the preparation and application of lightweight, high-performance B₄C ceramics.

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轻质高纯度B4C陶瓷的超高硬度和增强韧性，具有抗冲击性能

在高性能陶瓷材料领域，碳化硼（B4C）由于其优异的硬度、耐磨性和最低的密度，被认为是防护装甲和军事应用的理想选择。然而，烧结B4C的困难，以及硬度和韧性之间的权衡，极大地限制了它的应用。为了提高B4C陶瓷的性能，本研究使用具有超高电导率和比表面积的Ketjen black （KB）作为添加剂。kb衍生的导电网络提高了火花等离子烧结（SPS）效率，同时保持了高纯度B4C陶瓷的超高硬度和轻质特性。实验结果表明，制备的B4C陶瓷仅含有少量残余碳，且未形成二次相。值得注意的是，当添加4 wt% KB时，陶瓷密度保持在2.48 g/cm3的低水平，而力学性能有明显改善。维氏硬度达到36.81 GPa，断裂韧性为4.05 MPa·m1/2。这些综合性能代表了目前在高纯度B4C陶瓷中达到的最佳性能水平之一。此外，改进的烧结性能使KB/B4C陶瓷充分表现出其优越的抗冲击和抗破碎能力。这些发现为轻质高性能B4C陶瓷的制备和应用提供了有价值的见解。

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来源期刊

Carbon 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

20.80

自引率

7.30%

发文量

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The journal Carbon is an international multidisciplinary forum for communicating scientific advances in the field of carbon materials. It reports new findings related to the formation, structure, properties, behaviors, and technological applications of carbons. Carbons are a broad class of ordered or disordered solid phases composed primarily of elemental carbon, including but not limited to carbon black, carbon fibers and filaments, carbon nanotubes, diamond and diamond-like carbon, fullerenes, glassy carbon, graphite, graphene, graphene-oxide, porous carbons, pyrolytic carbon, and other sp2 and non-sp2 hybridized carbon systems. Carbon is the companion title to the open access journal Carbon Trends. Relevant application areas for carbon materials include biology and medicine, catalysis, electronic, optoelectronic, spintronic, high-frequency, and photonic devices, energy storage and conversion systems, environmental applications and water treatment, smart materials and systems, and structural and thermal applications.