The boron-containing phenolic fibers were prepared by melt-spinning a mixture of novolak resin and boron acid followed by curing the filaments with formaldehyde solution in the presence of an acid catalyst. The resulting fibers were heat-treated in N-2 at elevated temperatures. The results show that the addition of 1.0 wt% boron acid in the precursor resin can greatly increase thermal stability, mechanical strength and flame resistance of the resultant fibers. In comparison the boron-containing phenolic fibers with the pure phenolic fibers, the weight loss of the boron-containing phenolic fibers (BPF-1.0), heat-treated at 240 degrees C for 2 h, decreases from 60.5 to 39.1% in N-2, from 32.8 to 14.1% in air. Whereas, the limited oxygen index increases from 32.5 to 37.2%; the tensile strength increases from 129.3 to 163.4 MPa. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.