Research Progress on the Powders Preparation, Densification sintering, Microstructure and Properties of Tungsten Diboride (WB2)

Tungsten diboride (WB2) has attracted great attention of researchers around the world due to its excellent mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, wear resistance, and neutron absorption ability. Therefore, it has been considered to have a wide application prospect as machining tools and wear-resistant materials. However, similar to other transition metal borides, the full consolidation of WB2 is difficult to achieve, and the reported experimental hardness values of WB2 are much lower than the theoretical hardness values, which severely limits its broad industrial applications. In the present work, the progress on synthesis methods of WB2 powders, sintering methods of WB2 bulk samples, and the effect of sintering aids on the microstructure and mechanical properties of WB2 ceramics were reviewed and summarized.