Nanoindentation study of WC–12Co hardmetals obtained from nanocrystalline powders: Evaluation of hardness and modulus on individual phases

With the development of finer hardmetals, the study of mechanical properties of the different constituents down the micrometric level is a question of concern for materials optimization. Nanoindentation has been developed in last years in order to cope with mechanical characterisation at the nanolevel, but difficulties on phase detection are an issue. In the present work, individual hardness and Young's modulus of the constituents of WC–12Co composite were obtained by the use of very shallow nanoindentations (30 nm depth), with the aid of in situ 3D imaging to identify these. By this method three different phases at the sub-micrometric level have been identified and characterised: namely cobalt matrix, tungsten carbide and η phase. The presence of the latter phase and its characterisation is of paramount importance in understanding the behaviour of hardmetals. Values of hardness from 8 (cobalt matrix) to 25 GPa (η phase) have been obtained. Also, for these phases Young's modulus varied from 250 to 400 GPa respectively. Furthermore, it is firstly reported these values for the WC prismatic planes {1 0 1 0} being in the range of 40–55 and 700–900 GPa respectively. These values decrease to a hardness in the range of 25–30 GPa and modulus in the range from 450 to 550 GPa for the WC basal plane {0 0 0 1}.