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High-entropy boride-silicon carbide (HEB-SiC) ceramics were fabricated using boride-based powders prepared from borothermal and boro/carbothermal reduction methods. The effects of processing routes (borothermal reduction and boro/carbothermal reduction) on the HEB powders were examined. HEB-SiC ceramics with > 98% theoretical density were prepared by spark plasma sintering at 2000 ℃. It was demonstrated that the addition of SiC led to slight coarsening of the microstructure. The HEB-SiC ceramics prepared from boro/carbothermal reduction powders showed a fine-grained microstructure and higher Vickers’ hardness but lower fracture toughness value as compared with the same composition prepared from borothermal reduction powders. These results indicated that the selection of the powder processing method and the addition of SiC phase could contribute to the optimal preparation of high-entropy boride-based ceramics.


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Optimal preparation of high-entropy boride-silicon carbide ceramics

Show Author's information Yan ZHANGa,Shi-Kuan SUNb,Wei-Ming GUOa( )Liang XUaWei ZHANGaHua-Tay LINa( )
School of Electron-mechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK

† Yan Zhang and Shi-Kuan Sun contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

High-entropy boride-silicon carbide (HEB-SiC) ceramics were fabricated using boride-based powders prepared from borothermal and boro/carbothermal reduction methods. The effects of processing routes (borothermal reduction and boro/carbothermal reduction) on the HEB powders were examined. HEB-SiC ceramics with > 98% theoretical density were prepared by spark plasma sintering at 2000 ℃. It was demonstrated that the addition of SiC led to slight coarsening of the microstructure. The HEB-SiC ceramics prepared from boro/carbothermal reduction powders showed a fine-grained microstructure and higher Vickers’ hardness but lower fracture toughness value as compared with the same composition prepared from borothermal reduction powders. These results indicated that the selection of the powder processing method and the addition of SiC phase could contribute to the optimal preparation of high-entropy boride-based ceramics.

Keywords: microstructure, mechanical properties, high-entropy boride-silicon ceramics, borothermal reduction, boro/carbothermal reduction

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 02 June 2020
Revised: 27 August 2020
Accepted: 31 August 2020
Published: 21 October 2020
Issue date: February 2021

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University (No. 19ZK0113), the Pearl River S and T Nova Program of Guangzhou (No. 201710010142), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2017A050501033), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51402055, 51602060, and U1401247), and Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program (Nos. 2013G061 and 2014YT02C049).

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