SUPERSATURATED SOLID-SOLUTIONS OF BORON IN SIC BY SHS

Sintering of dense silicon carbide products requires specially prepare d starting powders with a small grain size, high purity, and appropria te contents of sintering activators. A method for the preparation of s uch powders with boron dopant by self-propagating high-temperature syn thesis (SHS) is described. Supersaturated solid solutions of boron in betaSiC with a boron content of up to 20 wt% were synthesized. Such po wders were sintered to high densities by pressureless sintering at rel atively low temperatures in a range of 2050-2150-degrees-C.