Synthesis and Densification of Nano-Sized W Powders Prepared by Hydrogen Reduction of Ball-Milled WO3 Powders

Abstract

The synthesis and consolidation of nano-sized W powders are attempted with the combination process of hydrogen reduction of ball-milled WO3 powder and spark plasma sintering. The reduction behavior of WO3 is analyzed by temperature-programmed reduction. The reaction peaks for reduction of WO3 are observed in the temperature range of 590–782 °C. XRD and TEM analysis reveals that oxide powder is changed to metallic W with an average particle size of 100 nm by hydrogen reduction at 900 °C for 1 h. The densified specimen by spark plasma sintering at 1700 °C under an applied pressure of 50 MPa using nano-sized W powder shows increased relative density compared with that using micron-sized W powder. The results suggested that the W bulk with increased relative density fine microstructure can be fabricated by spark plasma sintering of hydrogen-reduced WO3 powder, more effectively.