Spark plasma sintering of pure iron nanopowders by simple route

Pure iron nanopowders have been sintered using the spark plasma sintering technique. Fully dense materials can be achieved by a simple route. The influence of process parameters on density and hardness has been studied. The samples exhibit high hardness characteristic of nanostructured iron. This is confirmed by grain size measurements by X-ray diffraction and TEM. Moreover, when submitted to compression, the sinter exhibits high maximal strength with non-negligible ductility.