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Densely consolidated WC-based hard materials with 5–20 vol% ZrSiO4 was fabricated by spark plasma sintering at 1400 ℃ at a constant heating rate of 70 ℃/min−1. To achieve mechanical alloying of WC-ZrSiO4, planetary ball milling was carried out for 12 h, during which the brittle-brittle components (WC-ZrSiO4) became fragmented and their particles became refined. It was observed that certain, specific, non-isothermal sintering kinetics, such as apparent activation energy, sintering exponents, and densification strain, affected the densification behavior. The evolution of phase structure from powder to compact was found to be related the lattice distortion and micro-strain in the basal planes of WC. By examining the mechanical properties of the samples, it was that the added zircon content leads to enhanced fracture toughness (12.9 MPa m1/2) owing to the presence of WC-ZrSiO4 in the cemented carbide. In fact, the microcrack propagation of the fracture passed through zircon from a transgranular to a ductile component (fcc) where the crack tips could be absorbed. Graphic Abstract

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