Spark Plasma Sintering of high-strength ultrafine-grained tungsten carbide

The paper dwells on the research conducted into high-rate consolidation of pure tungsten carbide nanopowders using the Spark Plasma Sintering. Studies included the effect that the original size of WC nanoparticles and their preparation modes have on density, structure parameters, and mechanical properties of tungsten carbide. It has been found that materials that show abnormal grain growth during sintering have lower values of sintering activation energy as compared to materials the structure of which is more stable during high-rate heating. A qualitative model is proposed that explains this effect through the dependence of the grain boundary diffusion coefficient on the grain boundary migration rate.