Microstructure and properties of tungsten–samarium oxide composite prepared by a novel wet chemical method and spark plasma sintering

W–1 wt% Sm2O3 powders doped with highly uniform Sm2O3 were successfully synthesized by a novel wet chemical method followed by hydrogen reduction. The powders were consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1800 °C to suppress grain growth during sintering. The FE-SEM and HRTEM analysis, tensile test and thermal conductivity measurements were used to characterize these samples. The grain size, relative density of the bulk samples fabricated by SPS sintering were 4 μm and 97.8%, respectively. The tensile strength values of Sm2O3/W samples were higher than those of pure W samples. As the temperature rises from 25 to 800 °C, the thermal conductivity of pure W and W–1 wt% Sm2O3 composites decreased with the same trend and the thermal conductivity of both samples was above 160 W/m K at room temperature.