Room temperature stability, structure and mechanical properties of cubic tungsten carbide in flash sintered products
Source abstract
Abstract
This work explores the possibility to obtain the metastable cubic tungsten carbide phase (WC1-x) during the rapid and the ultrarapid consolidation of hexagonal WC nanopowders. Spark plasma sintering and flash sintering techniques are implemented to study the formation and the stability of WC1-x during sintering. A biphasic ceramic material, corresponding to cubic-WC/hex-WC (10/90 vol%), can be obtained uniquely with the flash sintering process. The ultrafast sintering of powders containing Cr and V impurities results in a peculiar cubic WC quaternary phase (W0.87Cr0.12V0.09)C0.71 which retains the crystalline structure, Fm3m {225}, and the metastable character of WC1-x, decomposing into the thermodynamically stable hexagonal phases (WC and W2C) after vacuum annealing at 700 °C and 1100 °C. Structural features of the composite are analysed by HRTEM and Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD), which pointed out the activation of room-temperature plastic deformation mechanisms in cubic WC grains. Such behaviour is connected to stacking faults interacting with partial dislocations on {111} planes, similarly to FCC metals. Nanomechanical indentations were also used to map the elastic modulus and the hardness of the cubic phase, which shows a noticeable softer character with respect to the hexagonal matrix. These results suggest flash sintering as a new strategy for producing WC/WC1-x composite materials with tailored elastic modulus and hardness/toughness ratio.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced materials and composites · Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research · Metal and Thin Film Mechanics
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