Materials Research (May 2017)

Obtaining and Characterization of W-Cu Composite Powder Produced by Mixing and Sintering of Ammonium Paratungstate (Apt) and Copper Nitrate

  • Maria José Santos Lima,
  • Fernando Erick Santos da Silva,
  • Maria Veronilda Macedo Souto,
  • Meysam Mashhadikarimi,
  • Ariadne Sousa Silva,
  • Uilame Umbelino Gomes,
  • Carlson Pereira de Souza

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-5373-mr-2016-1003
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. suppl 2
pp. 97 – 101

Abstract

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The objective of this work is obtaining W-30 wt% Cu composite powder from ammonium paratungstate hydrated (APT) and hydrated copper nitrate and investigating the influence of some production process parameters of W- 30 wt% Cu in particles form which results in high sinterability and densification of W-30 wt% Cu composite. To achieve this objective, the powder was obtained by manually mixing the APT and copper nitrate and reducing under a hydrogen atmosphere at 800 °C and then compacting at 500 MPa and sintering in a tubular furnace at 1200 °C for 60 minutes. The obtained materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, particle size analysis, density and microhardness measurements. The composite powder showed a good homogenization of Cu in W with very fine and agglomerated particles and a mean crystallite size of 25.64 nm. SEM coupled with EDS with mapping analysis revealed a homogeneous distribution of Cu and W in the sintered sample. The composite had a relative density of 96.77% and a microhardness of 523.66 HV. Therefore the method of obtaining the composite powder is feasible to sinter W-30 wt% Cu powder due to a greater dispersion and homogenization of phases and the average particle size.

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