High-strength ultrafine-grained tungsten-carbide-based materials obtained by spark plasma sintering

Ultrafine-grained (UFG) tungsten carbide (WC) samples with high hardness (up to 34 GPa) and increased cracking resistance have been obtained by the method of spark plasma sintering (SPS). Initial powders have been prepared by two-stage plasmachemical synthesis. The influence of the initial size of WC nanoparticles on the density, structural parameters, and mechanical properties of UFG tungsten carbide obtained by SPS has been studied. It is established that the phenomenon of accelerated sintering of WC powder is related to enhanced grain-boundary diffusion.