Effect of yttrium on morphologies and size of tungsten carbide particles prepared through CO reduction

The effect of yttrium on the reaction of tungsten oxide with CO was studied for the preparing various morphologies and size of tungsten carbide. The reaction rate, phase composition, particles size and morphology, surface area of samples were studied by TG (thermogravimetry), XRD (X-ray diffraction), SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller), respectively. It was found that the reaction route was following WO 3 → W 18 O 49 → WO 2 → WC at lower temperature, while at higher temperature, an intermediate phase W was formed and then carbonized to WC. During the reaction of pure WO 3 or mixtures (1 wt.% Y(NO 3 ) 3 + WO 3 ) with CO at lower temperature, the final products almost maintained the large irregular block shape. With the increase of temperature, the large WC particles were degraded and the obtained sub-particles became much more dispersed. After the addition of yttrium nitrate, the rod-like sub-particles were transformed into more stable polyhedral-shaped sub-particles with a smaller size. Furthermore, the mechanism of effect of yttrium on prepared tungsten carbides were analyzed in detail.