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Development of WC–ZrO 2 Nanocomposites by Spark Plasma Sintering
Author(s) -
Basu Bikramjit,
Lee JongHeun,
Kim DohYeon
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2004.00317.x
Subject(s) - spark plasma sintering , materials science , tungsten carbide , cubic zirconia , sintering , nanocomposite , tungsten , composite material , carbide , abrasive , ceramic , metallurgy
In the present work, we report the processing of ultrahard tungsten carbide (WC) nanocomposites with 6 wt% zirconia additions. The densification is conducted by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique in a vacuum. Fully dense materials are obtained after SPS at 1300°C for 5 min. The sinterability and mechanical properties of the WC–6 wt% ZrO 2 materials are compared with the conventional WC–6 wt% Co materials. Because of the high heating rate, lower sintering temperature, and short holding time involved in SPS, extremely fine zirconia particles (∼100 nm) and submicrometer WC grains are retained in the WC–ZrO 2 nanostructured composites. Independent of the processing route (SPS or pressureless sintering in a vacuum), superior hardness (21–24 GPa) is obtained with the newly developed WC–ZrO 2 materials compared with that of the WC–Co materials (15–17 GPa). This extremely high hardness of the novel WC–ZrO 2 composites is expected to lead to significantly higher abrasive‐wear resistance.