A reactive sintering technique with a small addition of carbon (up to 1.9 wt.%) has been used for tungsten powder consolidation. The process allowed procurement of the nonporous and fully densified material at 1300 °C and 30 MPa in 12 min. The SEM and EDX analysis showed that the milling of 5 μm tungsten powder with 0.6, 1.3, and 1.9 wt.% of carbon in a planetary mill led to the formation of the nanostructured mix, which appears to be W-C nanopowder surrounding tungsten grains. X-Ray Diffractometry data indicated tungsten hemicarbide (W2C) nucleation during the hot pressing of the milled powders. The exothermic reaction 2W + C → W2C occurs during the sintering process and promotes charge densification. The Vickers hardness and indentation toughness of W-1.3 wt.%C composition reached 5.7 GPa and 12.6 MPa∙m1/2, respectively. High toughness and high material densification allow proposing the W-WC2 for use as a plasma-facing material in fusion applications.
Keywords: densification kinetics; plasma-facing material; powder milling; reactive hot pressing; tungsten; tungsten hemicarbide.