000084379 001__ 84379 000084379 005__ 20200716101534.0 000084379 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1038/s41598-019-49985-2 000084379 0248_ $$2sideral$$a114000 000084379 037__ $$aART-2019-114000 000084379 041__ $$aeng 000084379 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0001-6337-5510$$aMoshtaghioun, Bibi Malmal$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000084379 245__ $$aElusive super-hard B6C accessible through the laser-floating zone method 000084379 260__ $$c2019 000084379 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000084379 5203_ $$aBoron carbide is among the most promising ceramic materials nowadays: their mechanical properties are outstanding, and they open potential critical applications in near future. Since sinterability is the most critical drawback to this goal, innovative and competitive sintering procedures are attractive research topics in the science and technology of this carbide. This work reports the pioneer use of the laser-floating zone technique with this carbide. Crystallographic, microstructural and mechanical characterization of the so-prepared samples is carefully analysed. One unexpected output is the fabrication of a B6C composite when critical conditions of growth rate are adopted. Since this is one of the hardest materials in Nature and it is achievable only under extremely high pressures and temperatures in hot-pressing, the use of this technique offers a promising alternative for the fabrication. Hardness and elastic modulus of this material reached to 52¿GPa and 600¿GPa respectively, which is close to theoretical predictions reported in literature. 000084379 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 000084379 590__ $$a3.998$$b2019 000084379 591__ $$aMULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES$$b17 / 71 = 0.239$$c2019$$dQ1$$eT1 000084379 592__ $$a1.341$$b2019 000084379 593__ $$aMultidisciplinary$$c2019$$dQ1 000084379 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000084379 700__ $$aCumbrera, Francisco L. 000084379 700__ $$aGómez-García, Diego 000084379 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0003-2242-6822$$aPeña, José I.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000084379 7102_ $$15001$$2065$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Ciencia Tecnol.Mater.Fl.$$cÁrea Cienc.Mater. Ingen.Metal. 000084379 773__ $$g9, 1 (2019), 13340 [10 pp.]$$pSci. rep.$$tScientific Reports$$x2045-2322 000084379 8564_ $$s1984978$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/84379/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000084379 8564_ $$s108053$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/84379/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000084379 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:84379$$particulos$$pdriver 000084379 951__ $$a2020-07-16-09:35:20 000084379 980__ $$aARTICLE