Ultrafine and nanoscaled tungsten carbide synthesis from colloidal carbon coated nano tungsten precursor

A new process for synthesising homogeneous ultrafine and nanoscaled tungsten carbide with good stability in air from well dispersed colloidal carbon coated nano tungsten precursor with highly agglomerated nanoscaled tungsten powder as starting material in a cost effective way is introduced. It is shown that hydrogen atmosphere facilitates the carbon and tungsten reaction process. Inheritance character in grain size distribution of tungsten carbide from tungsten starting material with BET calculated grain size of 46·1 nm has been observed. When the carburisation temperature increases from 1000 to 1300°C, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller calculated grain size of tungsten carbide powder increases from 68·6 nm to 339·4 nm and the oxygen content decreases from 0·44 to 0·10%.