A STUDY ON TUNGSTEN OXIDE REDUCTION FOR TUNGSTEN POWDER PRODUCTION

Abstract

Hydrogen reduction is one of the most common and important methods to manufacture tungsten powders from WO3. Several developments have been made to manufacture ultrafine tungsten particles by hydrogen reduction. However, controlling particles size during formation of tungsten particles is rather a difficult process as WO2(OH)2 inevitably forms during the process resulting in increasing the particle size. In this study a new method to produce micron sized tungsten particles was investigated. WO3 powders were reduced by hydrogen reduction after milling them for 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. The resultant particles were characterized to determine their size and phases present in them.