Synthesis of Nano-WC by High-Energy Ball Milling

Abstract

Nanosized tungsten carbide (nanoWC) has been widely studied and applied in many industries as hard materials since it has good combination of high hardness and strength. Thermal mechanical alloying method consisting of high-energy ball milling and subsequent carbonization is a common synthetic approach to prepare nanoWC. In this paper, a special milling process has been reviewed, in which the dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) is introduced, for the preparation of nanoWC. The DBDP milling renders the W+C powders with specific flake-like structure possible owing to the cooperative effect of DBDP and mechanical milling. The obtained W+C powders are activated significantly within shortened milling period. Furthermore, pure nanoWC powders can be synthesized after subsequent carbonization at a significantly lowered temperature. DBDP milling is demonstrated to be an efficient way to synthesize nanoWC.

Preparation Technology of Ultra-Fine Tungsten Carbide Powders: An Overview

“…Increases in powder activity accelerate the mutual diffusion of atoms. Under certain conditions, alloy phase nuclei are formed through ball milling and gradually grow into an alloy phase until all elemental powders are consumed (Dai et al, 2013;Maat et al, 2018;Sadeghi et al, 2018).…”