Electrochemical Production of Tungsten Powders from Tungsten Hardmetal Waste

Abstract

Hardmetals intended to perform in harsh operating conditions are developed with the use of metallic powders, in particular, tungsten powders. The growing consumption of tungsten in industry necessitates the improvement of techniques employed to produce it from industrial waste. The objective of this research effort was to reduce metallic tungsten (as a powder) from chloride and chloride–fluoride melts and determine the factors influencing its particle size. The starting material was tungsten oxide (WO3) produced electrochemically from processed raw material (VK-6 tungsten carbide pseudoalloy). The melts were KCl–NaCl–CsBr and NaCl–KCl–CsBr–Na3WO3F3 eutectic mixtures. When the melt with a high WO2F42– content was subjected to electrolysis, tungsten precipitated as a superfine powder. The precipitate morphology showed that the tungsten particl esize was dependent on electrolysis conditions. A relatively inexpensive and effective method of producing tungsten powders was developed upon the research.