Effect of heat absorbing alumina addition on mechanochemical synthesis of WC–Al₂O₃nanocomposites

It has been shown earlier that formation of undesirable W2C phase during mechanochemical synthesis of WC–Al2O3 composites from WO3–Al–C mixture is due to high temperatures caused by the large heat release during the initial aluminothermic reduction of WO3. With the aim of preventing the formation of W2C, in this study, Al2O3 was added to lower the reaction temperature. Thermodynamic calculations showed that Al2O3 presence in WO3/2Al/C/xAl2O3...