Enhanced densification and mechanical properties of Ta-Hf-C solid solution ceramics by WC doping

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an effective method for doping WC into Ta-Hf-C ceramics to significantly enhance their densification and mechanical properties. An increasing WC doping amount from 0 to 20 at.%, enhances the densification of Ta-Hf-C ceramics from 92.4 % to 99.1 %. This is mainly due to the fact that the doping of WC effectively removes the harmful oxygen impurities from the ceramics, thereby increasing their sintering activity. Furthermore, the doping of WC plays an active role in the mechanical properties of the ceramics. The Ta-Hf-C doped with 15 at.% WC has the highest value of 36.41 GPa for nano-hardness due to the solid solution strengthening mechanism, while the highest Vickers hardness (38.75 GPa) and fracture toughness (3.76 MPa m^1/2) appear in Ta-Hf-C doped with 20 at.% WC. The main toughness mechanism is W segregation at the grain boundary, enhancing grain boundary strength.