In the present study, boron carbide was prepared using boric acid and hazelnut shell activated carbon by a carbothermic reduction method at 1400 °C. Two different methods were applied to obtain activated carbon for this study; activated carbon production using hazelnut shells (I) and sulfuric acid treatment of hazelnut shells (II). The formation of boron carbide was proven by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction(XRD), also the morphological examination was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The average grain sizes were found as 30 and 7 nm for II and I, respectively. In addition, the calculated lattice parameters were closely matched with the reported values in the JCPDS card. It was found that hazelnut shells can be used as an alternative carbon source for boron carbide synthesis.

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