Boron Carbide vs. Zirconia
Boron carbide belongs to the non-oxide engineering ceramics classification, while zirconia belongs to the oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 20 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (2, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.
For each property being compared, the top bar is boron carbide and the bottom bar is zirconia.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 1710 to 2200 | |
| 1260 to 3080 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 240 to 460 | |
| 190 to 200 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 170 to 410 | |
| 630 to 970 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 2.5 to 3.5 | |
| 8.0 to 11 |
| Knoop Hardness | 2600 to 3200 | |
| 1210 to 1300 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.17 to 0.19 | |
| 0.25 to 0.29 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 350 | |
| 410 to 450 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 1000 to 2500 | |
| 500 to 1330 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 950 | |
| 400 to 510 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 31 to 90 | |
| 2.2 to 4.3 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 4.5 to 5.6 | |
| 8.8 to 9.5 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 6.4 | |
| 28 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 0 to 11 | |
| 4.5 to 11 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.1 to 2.7 | |
| 5.7 to 6.0 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 63 to 100 | |
| 19 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 91 to 100 | |
| 33 to 34 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 37 to 47 | |
| 19 to 22 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 42 to 53 | |
| 21 to 23 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 16 to 38 | |
| 0.73 to 1.8 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 9.7 to 20 | |
| 15 to 19 |