Preparation of tungsten powder by an unmixed carbon reduction method based on carbon diffusion

In this study, a new unmixed carbon reduction method was proposed for the preparation of pure W powder. The effects of reduction temperature, reduction time, carbon distance and thickness of WO 3 layer on the phase of the reduction products were investigated. Results show that pure tungsten powder with a carbon content of less than 150 ppm can be prepared at 950 °C with a WO 3 layer thickness of 5 mm and a carbon distance of 2 mm. Increased carbon distance and thickness of WO 3 layer will lead to a decrease in the reduction ratio. Additionally, particle size of the tungsten powder gradually increases from 1 μm to 8 μm due to sintering with the extended reduction time. Furthermore, a two-stage carbon reduction process with WO 2 as an intermediate product is proposed, which avoids the sintering and growth of tungsten powder particles and the particle size of tungsten powder was successfully reduced to 2 μm. This unmixed carbon reduction reduces the carbon concentration and prevents the carbonization of tungsten powder. The experiment verifies the feasibility of carbon as a reducing agent in producing pure tungsten powder by reducing WO 3 .