Mechanism for amorphization of boron carbide B4C under uniaxial compression

Boron carbide undergoes an amorphization transition under high-velocity impacts, causing it to suffer a catastrophic loss in strength. The failure mechanism is not clear and this limits the ways to improve its resistance to impact. To help uncover the failure mechanism, we used ab initio methods to carry out large-scale uniaxial compression simulations on two polytypes of stoichiometric boron carbide (B4C), B11C-CBC, and B-12-CCC, where B11C or B-12 is the 12-atom icosahedron and CBC or CCC is the three-atom chain. The simulations were performed on large supercells of 180 atoms. Our results indicate that the B11C-CBC (B-12-CCC) polytype becomes amorphous at a uniaxial strain s = 0.23 (0.22) and with a maximum stress of 168 (151) GPa. In both cases, the amorphous state is the consequence of structural collapse associated with the bending of the three-atom chain. Careful analysis of the structures after amorphization shows that the B11C and B-12 icosahedra are highly distorted but still identifiable. Calculations of the elastic coefficients (C-ij) at different uniaxial strains indicate that both polytypes may collapse under a much smaller shear strain (stress) than the uniaxial strain (stress). On the other hand, separate simulations of both models under hydrostatic compression up to a pressure of 180 GPa show no signs of amorphization, in agreement with experimental observation. The amorphized nature of both models is confirmed by detailed analysis of the evolution of the radial pair distribution function, total density of states, and distribution of effective charges on atoms. The electronic structure and bonding of the boron carbide structures before and after amorphization are calculated to further elucidate the mechanism of amorphization and to help form the proper rationalization of experimental observations.