Mechanochemical process for W–15 wt.%Cu nanocomposite powders with WO3–CuO powder mixture and its sintering characteristics

Abstract To fabricate the W–15 wt.%Cu composite powder, two types of ball-milling processes were applied in the mechanochemical process. In the case of the simple mixing, the W–Cu composite powder of the coarse Cu-coring structure resulted from the W nucleation on the surface of Cu in the hydrogen-reduction process of WO 2 → W. Such coarse Cu-coring structure caused the restraint of W particle rearrangement during liquid phase sintering. However, In the case of the high energy ball-milling, a very fine and homogeneous W–Cu nanocomposite powder was produced and its sinterability was superior to that of simple mixing.