Manufacture and Properties of Boron Carbide

In the industrial manufacture of boron carbides, boron(lll) oxide(l) or boric acid (2) are reacted with carbon in resistively heated furnaces at 2400°C (as in SiC-manufacture)  

The tetraboron carbide produced by these processes consists of coarse hard particles suitable for grinding applications (ca. 360 t/a) or as starting materials for the manufacture of metallic borides (see Section 5.6.8), 

Fine particulate tetraboron carbide is produced by the reduction of boron(III) oxide with magnesium or aluminum in the presence of carbon  

Finely divided boron carbide can be processed to ceramics. Applications  

Fine particulate powder with particle sizes below 5 (im can be compressed by hot pressing at 2100 to 2200°C to dense ceramic products. These are used in the manufacture of armored plating or in nuclear reactors as a protective 

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