Synthesis of Nanostructured Tungsten Carbide (WC) from Ammonia Paratungstate-APT and its Characterization by XRD and Rietveld Refinement

The carbides of refractory metals like tungsten carbide (WC), tantalum carbide (TaC) and niobium carbide (NbC), has been extensively studied due to their applications in several areas of industry, because of their specific properties; such as high melting point, high hardness, wear resistance, oxidation resistance and good electrical conductivity. The tungsten carbide, particularly, is generally used at hardmetal industries due to its high hardness and wear resistance. New synthesis techniques have been developed to reduce the synthesis temperature of refractory metal carbides using more reactive precursors and gas-solid reactions for carbon reduction. The result is producing pure carbides suitable properties for production of high quality cemented carbides and more selective catalysts. In this work, pure and nanostructured WC was obtained from the ammonium paratungstate hydrate (APT), at low temperature and short reaction time. Hydrogen (H₂) and methane (CH₄) were used as a reducing gas and carbon source, respectively. The precursor and obtained product were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results obtained by diffraction of X-rays showed that complete reduction and carburization of APT have been took place resulted in pure WC formation. The average crystallite size was in nanometer order reaching values of approximately 20.8 nm and a surface area (BET) of 26.9 m2/g.