Resources Recycling ISSN:2765-3439(Print) 2765-3447(Online) 자원리싸이클링

In this study, tungsten carbide (WC) powder was prepared using a novel recycling process for hard metal sludge that does not use ammonium paratungstate. Instead of ammonia, acid was used to remove the sodium and crystallized tungstate, resulting in the formation of tungstic acid (H₂WO₄). The WC powder was successfully synthesized by the carbothermal reduction of tungstic acid through H₂O decomposition, reduction of WO₃ to W, and formation of WC. The carbon content and holding time at the carbothermal reduction temperature were optimized to remove free carbon from the WC powder. As a result, most of the free carbon in the WC powder prepared from sludge was removed, and the content of free carbon in the synthesized WC powder was lower than that in commercial WC powder. Moreover, the crystallite size of WC prepared from H₂WO₄ was much smaller than that of commercial micron-sized WC powder produced from APT. The small crystallite size of WC induces grain growth during the sintering of the WC-Co composite; thus, a WC-Co composite with large WC grains was fabricated using the WC powder prepared from H₂WO₄. The large WC grains affected the mechanical properties of the WC-Co composite. Further, due to the large grain size, the WC-Co composite fabricated from H₂WO₄ exhibited a higher toughness than that of the WC-Co composite prepared from commercial WC powder.