Synthesis of iron boride powder by carbothermic reduction method

Abstract

The crystalized Iron boride (FeB) ceramic powder has been successfully obtained through carbothermic reduction method with Fe2O3 and B2O3 powders as a starting materials. It was found that the synthesizing temperature and holding time has fundamental control on the morphology of FeB powder. The microstructure observation showed the irregular FeB crystallites, when increase in annealing temperature and holding time. Further investigations on the reaction mechanism were examined by using TGA/DTA, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that at certain high temperature and considerable amount of holding time were beneficially required to synthesizing the single phase FeB powder. The boron and iron atoms diffused to form Fe2B and the crystallized FeB powder were obtained at 1200 °C after holding 120 min in inert gas atmosphere.