BORON CARBIDE PRODUCTION BY SOL-GEL METHOD AND ITS CHARACTERIZATION

Boron carbide is a promising material for advanced technology demanded areas because of its impressive properties like high hardness, high melting point, low density, high chemical stability and neutron absorption capacity. various methods such as carbothermal reduction, synthesis of boron carbide with elemental boron and carbon, co-reduction, cvd (chemical vapor deposition), sol-gel are used for production of boron carbide. among these methods, sol-gel method is more advantageous because this method is a simple process, requires lower temperature and low cost. in this study the production of boron carbide and characterization of it is done. two different raw materials were used for the production of boron carbide precursor. firstly, the precursor which obtained via sol-gel technique with polivinyl alcohol (pva) and boric acid, called as pvab and activation energy was calculated with ozawa method using tga-dsc analysis which handled at different heating rates. then, the synthesis of boron carbide precursor was aimed via pyrolize of mid-product in 750°c nitrogen atmosphere. besides citric acid and boric acid was also used for production of boron carbide and boron carbide production was achieved.