In this paper, layered boron carbide (B₄C) particles were successfully synthesized by sol-gel-low temperature pyrolysis method using boron acid and glycerin as raw materials with self-made reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as additives. The structure of the sol-gel condensation product was analyzed by FT-IR. The phase, morphology and particle size of the B₄C were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and LPSA. The results showed that boron carbide was rhombic crystal phase, but the surface of the particles was wrinkled and more layered. The B₄C powders with uniform morphology and some particle sizes less than 100 nm were prepared with the RGO content of 0.6%. Testing the neutron-shielding properties of the polypropylene-B₄C composites suggested that neutron transmittance with the B₄C content of 35 wt% was 94.1% lower (from 70.6% to 4.1%) than neat polypropylene, and the total macroscopic absorption cross-section was about 18 times larger (from 0.0857 ± 0.0031 cm^-1 to 1.5521 ± 0.0008 cm^-1). The relative density, fracture toughness and hardness of self-made B₄C ceramics (sB₄C) were higher than the commercially available B₄C ceramics (cB₄C). This study provided a new method for the preparation of B₄C powders with excellent neutron absorption properties and good sintering activity

Keywords: Boron carbide, Graphene, Neutron shielding, Sintering activity