Mechanochemical process for W-15 wt.%Cu nanocomposite powders with WO₃-CuO powder mixture and its sintering characteristics

To fabricate the W-15 wt.%Cu composite powder, two types of ball-milling processes were applied in the mechanochemical process. In the case of the simple mixing, the W-Cu composite powder of the coarse Cu-coring structure resulted from the W nucleation on the surface of Cu in the hydrogen-reduction process of WO₂ → W. Such coarse Cu-coring structure caused the restraint of W particle rearrangement during liquid phase sintering. However, In the case of the high energy ball-milling, a very fine and homogeneous W-Cu nanocomposite powder was produced and its sinterability was superior to that of simple mixing.