Cobalt-Free Environmentally Green Process to Produce Fine Grained WC

The proposed work will result in a method for production of dense, hard, tough, strong tungten carbide (WC) ceramic material for ultimate use as the penetrating core in armor piercing projectiles. Focus is on the development and feasibility of a titanium silicon carbide (Ti3SiC2) based matrix as a replacement for cobalt based materials currently used. Ti3SiC2 is a so called ductile ceramic which shows improved fracture toughness compared to most ceramic materials. Sintering agents to fuse the WC into a dense hard monoliths, including TiSi2, Ni, and/or ZrB2, will be utilized in dopant levels. Grain inhibitors, preceramic polymers, microwave processing, and other means of microstructure control will be utilized to keep grain size<1 um in the fully densified composite. Ceramic rods of this next generation WC material will be fabricated and hardness, density, and fracture toughness of the resulting ceramic measured.