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Plasma Synthesis of Tungsten Carbide Nanopowder from Ammonium Paratungstate
Author(s) -
Ryu Taegong,
Sohn Hong Yong,
Hwang Kyu Sup,
Fang Zhigang Z.
Publication year - 2009
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.1551-2916.2009.02961.x
Subject(s) - tungsten carbide , carbide , tungsten , materials science , metallurgy , plasma , physics , quantum mechanics
A thermal plasma process has been applied to the synthesis of nanosized tungsten carbide powder with ammonium paratungstate (APT) as the precursor. The reduction and carburization of vaporized APT produced nanosized tungsten carbide (WC 1− x ) powder, which sometimes contained a small amount of W 2 C phase. The effects of reactant gas composition, plasma torch power, the flow rate of plasma gas, and the addition of secondary plasma gas (H 2 ) on the product composition and particle size were investigated. The produced tungsten carbide (WC 1− x ) powder was <20 nm in particle size. The synthesized powders were also subjected to a hydrogen heat treatment to fully carburize the WC 1− x and W 2 C phases to the WC phase as well as to remove excess carbon. Finally, WC powder of particle size <100 nm was obtained.