Titanium diboride–silicon carbide–boron carbide ceramics with super‐high hardness and strength

Abstract

Abstract Triplex particulate composites composed of boride and carbide ceramics were found to have high strength, hardness, and fracture toughness values. Two compositions consisting of 70:15:15 and 1:1:1 volume ratios of TiB 2, SiC, and B 4 C were produced from commercially available powders by hot‐pressing. The 70:15:15 ceramic exhibited a strength of ~1.3 GP a, while the 1:1:1 ceramic had a strength of ~0.9 GP a. These strengths are comparable to super‐strong Y 2 O 3 ‐ PSZ and β‐SiAl ON based composites. The Vickers’ hardness values of these ceramics were ~32 GP a for indent loads of 9.8 N. Hardness increased as indentation load decreased. The 1:1:1 ceramic had a hardness of ~53 GP a at an indentation load of 0.49 N, higher than values reported for so‐called “super‐hard” ceramics, and comparable to c‐ BN .