Properties of nanostructured tungsten carbide and their rapid consolidation by pulsed current activated sintering

Highly dense nanostructured WC with a relative density of up to 99% was obtained within 2 min by pulsed current activated sintering (PCAS) under a pressure of 80 MPa. The relative density of WC increased to 99% and the average grain size of WC decreased to 54 nm with milling time. The hardness and fracture toughness of the dense WC produced by PCAS were 2620, 2489 and 2068 kg mm −2 and 8.5, 8.8 and 9.8 MPa m 1/2 with milling times of 10, 4 and 1 h, respectively.