Reactive sintering process and thermoelectric properties of boron rich boron carbides

Abstract Dense boron rich boron carbides were reactive sintered by hot pressing at 2050 °C using elementary boron carbon compositions with carbon contents of 9.1, 11.1, 13.3 and 18.8 at.%. The following material characteristics are presented: relative density, SEM images, EDX, X-ray diffraction and corresponding lattice parameters, Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power factor. Significant grain growth has been obtained with increasing boron content. A deeper understanding of the boron and carbon reaction and the overall sintering process is gained by thermal and chemical analysis in combination with X-ray diffraction. Additionally a thermal experiment with boron and carbon layers illustrates the solid state diffusion behaviour. The found results of boron carbide properties of this paper correspond with results by other authors. The aim is to correlate technological aspects of sintering procedure with material properties. This should help to improve the thermoelectric efficiency of boron carbide based materials.