Research on the effect of liquid-liquid doping processes on the doped powders and microstructures of W–ZrO2(Y) alloys

Abstract

In previous researches, there are few studies on the mechanisms involved in liquid-liquid doping techniques for preparing oxide particle doped tungsten powders. In this research, based on different polytungstate species, three liquid–liquid doping techniques for synthesizing different doped precursor powders were proposed and compared. The extremely homogeneous hexagonal (NH4)0.33WO3·H2O microspheres and flaky (NH4)6H2W12O40·5H2O were synthesized. The synthesis mechanisms of precursors, the doping processes and reaction mechanisms for preparing yttrium-stabilised ZrO2 in ternary liquid phase system were discussed. The doped powder prepared through azeotropic distillation method exhibits higher quality due to the highly dispersed ZrO2(Y) phase uniformly distributed in flaky precursor, and the corresponding alloy possesses more excellent microstructure and mechanical properties. The proposed azeotropic distillation method offers a general pathway and is readily adapted to large-scale industrial production of high-quality oxide particle doped W powders.