Investigation of the physical and mechanical properties of hot-pressed boron nitride/oxide ceramic composites

Billets of hexagonal boron nitride powders (h-BN) were hot-pressed, varying the alignment of the platelike particles and the amount of oxide additives . Increasing either alignment of individual grains or the amount of additiv es was shown to increase flexural strength, to approximately 120 MPa at amb ient temperatures. h-BN was shown to deflect crack initially propagating no rmal to its basal planes.