Bulk tungsten with uniformly dispersed La2O3 nanoparticles sintered from co-precipitated La2O3/W nanoparticles

Abstract We report the preparation of 1 wt% La 2 O 3 doped La 2 O 3 /W nanoparticles by a co-precipitation process, using ammonium metatungstate (AMT) and lanthanum nitrate as raw materials. The as-synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Filed-emission scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy. Our results reveal that the as-synthesized particles possess uniform diameters of about 70 nm, and are of high purity. The TEM and the corresponding fast Fourier transform images demonstrated that La 2 O 3 precipitates were homogeneously doped into the nano-sized tungsten particles. When the as-synthesized nanoparticles were sintered by spark plasma sintering, the electron backscatter diffraction images of the bulk material reveal that La 2 O 3 nanoparticles were homogenously distributed in both the tungsten grains and the grain boundaries, and the sample exhibit a narrow micro-hardness distribution.