The reaction behavior of chemically vapor-deposited BN ceramics in wet air was investigated. The results showed that the oxidation reaction occurred simultaneously with the volatile reaction. The long-term degradation rate of BN was determined by the volatilization reaction of B 2 O 3 with H 2 O. The reaction kinetics was discussed using different kinetic models, i.e. the paralinear kinetic model and RPP model. Although both models could be adopted to fit the experimental data, RPP model was preferred because the model not only gave an explicit expression of the reaction fraction as the function of all parameters that would be convenient for theoretical discussion, but also it would perform a simple calculation.