Microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-pressed B4C/(W,Ti)C ceramic composites

In this paper, B4C/(W,Ti)C ceramic composites with different content of solid-solution (W,Ti)C were produced by hot pressing. The effect of (W,Ti)C content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of B4C/(W,Ti)C ceramic composites has been studied. Results showed that a chemical reaction took place for this system during hot pressing, and resulted in a B4C/TiB2/W2B5 composite with high density and improved mechanical properties compared to monolithic B4C ceramic. Densification rates of the B4C-based ceramic composites were found to be affected by addition of (W,Ti)C. Increasing (W,Ti)C content led to an increase of the densification rates of the composites. The sintering temperature was lowered from 2150 °C for monolithic B4C to 1850 °C for the B4C/(W,Ti)C composites. The fracture toughness and flexural strength continuously increased with increasing (W,Ti)C content up to 50 wt.%, while the hardness decreased with increasing (W,Ti)C content.