Study of the combustion synthesis process of nanostructured WC and WC–Co

In this study, a new approach to synthesize nanostructured WC and WC–Co powders is developed. WC and WC–Co powders have been synthesized from WO3–NaN3–C and WO3–Co3O4–NaN3–C green mixtures in which NaN3 was used as a reducing agent. Parametric study of the combustion process including initial concentration of starting materials, samples diameter and the combustion temperature were carried out under argon pressure. The final products are first washed and then examined by XRD and TEM analysis. As a result, phase pure nanostructured WC and WC–Co with the particle sizes of about 50–100 and 50–200 nm were obtained.