Microwave assisted synthesis of WC nanopowder from nanosized multicomponent system W-C produced in thermal plasma reactor

Abstract The effect of processing multicomponent nanopowders of the W-C system obtained by plasma-chemical synthesis in a microwave electromagnetic field with a frequency of 24 GHz, generated by continuous gyrotron, has been experimentally studied. It was found that the formation of nanosized particles of tungsten carbide WC occurs during microwave treatment. The influence of the processing time, microwave power and the composition of the gas atmosphere on the phase composition of nanopowders, their morphology and specific surface area was investigated. It has been found that processing in a microwave field can reduce the time of chemical transformations, leading to the formation of tungsten monocarbide, by an order of magnitude compared to traditional heating in an electric furnace in a hydrogen environment. At the same time, the particle size is preserved in the nanometer range.