AbstractA review of characteristics of various types of boron carbide coatings considered as candidate materials for protection of tokamak inner surfaces against high energy heat fluxes is presented. Such coatings are produced by various methods: chemical vapor deposition by means of chloride and fluoride techniques, gas conversion, plasma spray and reaction-sintering. Contrary to pure carbon materials, B4C has much lower chemical and high-temperature sputtering, is capable to oxygen gettering and lower hydrogen recycling. In contrast to thin boronization films, the thick coatings can resist high heat fluxes such as in tokamak divertors. Comparative analysis shows that coatings produced by the diffusion methods, such as fluoride CVD and gas conversion, are more resistent to heat loads, and one of the most promising candidates are the fluoride CVD coatings.