| Boron Carbide (B4C) is a ceramic material of technological application due to its extreme hardness and high chemical and thermal stability. To obtain homogeneous precursor for boron carbide, a suitable solvent is employed to form a dispersion of appropriate amounts of boron tri-isopropoxide, calcined sucrose and magnesium methoxide. The reactive mixture in the form of dispersion is performed under continuous stirring into a reactor system heated by microwave to promote the molecular agitation and the reaction rate, until a substantially dry reactive mixture is formed. After the precursor was calcined at 800 °C and mixed with amorphous carbon (1 wt.%), the mixtures were maintained under vacuum (10-4 atm) in a quartz capsule and heated in a microwave oven operating at 2.45 GHz and power levels of 1400 W until the reaction of the compounds is reached. A significant amount of nanotubes, nanoparticles and nanofibers was found in the samples and have been characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR). |
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