Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of W-Al(2)O(3) Alloy Plates Prepared by a Wet Chemical Method and Rolling Process

The uneven distribution and large size of the second phase weakens the effect of dispersion strengthening in ODS-W alloys. In this article, the W-Al(2)O(3) composite powders were fabricated using a wet chemical method, resulting in a finer powder and uniformly dispersed Al(2)O(3) particles in the tungsten-based alloy. The particle size of the pure tungsten powder is 1.05 μm and the particle size of W-0.2 wt.%Al(2)O(3) is 727 nm. Subsequently, the W-Al(2)O(3) alloy plates were successfully obtained by induction sintering and rolling processes. Al(2)O(3) effectively refined grain size from powder-making to sintering. The micro-hardness of the tungsten alloy plates reached 512 HV(0.2), which is 43.7% higher than that of pure tungsten plates. The nano-hardness reached 14.2 GPa, which is 24.1% higher than that of the pure tungsten plate; the compressive strength reached 2224 MPa, which is 37.2% higher than that of the pure tungsten.