The development of boron carbides

Boron carbide ceramics are excellent structural materials which have important applications in the civil, aero and military fields, owing to the properties of high hardness, high melting point and low density. The development and research status of boron carbides were summarized in this article. The densification and toughening mechanisms, the main difficulties of sintering boron carbides, were emphasized. The nanoparticles reinforced boron carbide matrix composites can be fabricated by insitu synthetic reaction and precursor pyrogenation, which are promising techniques for the preparation of high performance ceramics.