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 align-ment of individual grains or the amount of additives was shown to increase flexural strength, to approximately 120 MPa at ambient temperatures. h-BN was shown to deflect cracks initially propagating normal to its basal planes. I.