Abstract
In the present work, mechanical milling technique using a high-energy ball mill was employed for preparing of nanoscaled WC grains powders with an average grain size of 7 nm in diameters of WC. The present study demonstrates a successful consolidation process achieved at 1250 °C for sintering of ball-milled WC powders into full dense bulk buttons (above 99.6%), using SPS technique. The as-consolidated WC bulk nanocrystalline buttons revealed high hardness value (~24 GPa) with low elastic modulus (~332 GPa). Moreover, they possessed a high fracture toughness (15 MPa m1/2) that has never been reported for pure WC.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support received by the Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Program-Energy and Building Research Center, Kuwait Institute for scientific Research is highly appreciated. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Kuwait Government for purchasing the equipment used in the present work, using the budget dedicated for the project led by the first author (P-KISR-06-04) of Establishing Nanotechnology Center in KISR is highly appreciated.
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Sherif El-Eskandarany, M., Al-Hazza, A. & Al-Hajji, L.A. HRTEM and Nanoindentation Studies of Bulk WC Nanocrystalline Materials Prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering of Ball-Milled Powders. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 26, 124–133 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-016-2443-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-016-2443-3