Compression behavior of WC and WC-6%Co up to 50 GPa determined by synchrotron x-ray diffraction and ultrasonic techniques

The equations of state (pressure-volume relations) for WC and WC-6%Co have been determined by synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements on polycrystalline powder samples loaded in a diamond anvil cell as well as by ultrasonic measurements on hot-pressed polycrystalline, cylindrical samples loaded in a multianvil high-pressure apparatus. The third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state fitted to the x-ray diffraction pressure-density sets of data, collected up to 50 GPa, yields ambient pressure isothermal bulk moduli of K(oT)=411.8 +/- 12.1 GPa and K(oT)=402.4 +/- 14.1 GPa, with pressure derivatives of K'(oT)=5.45 +/- 0.73 and K'(oT)=7.50 +/- 0.86 for WC and WC-6%Co, respectively. The ultrasonic measurements, conducted up to 14 GPa, enabled the determination of the pressure dependences of both bulk and shear moduli. Using Eulerian finite strain equations to fit the ultrasonic data, we obtain for WC an ambient pressure adiabatic bulk modulus of K(os)=383.8 +/- 0.8 GPa, and K'(os)=2.61 +/- 0.07 for its pressure derivative, while values of G(os)=304.0 +/- 0.3 GPa and G(os)(')=1.50 +/- 0.09 were determined for the shear modulus and its pressure derivative, respectively. Meanwhile, for WC-6%Co, we obtain K(os)=357.5 +/- 1.0 GPa, K'(os)=5.18 +/- 0.14, G(os)=253.5 +/- 0.3 GPa, and G(os)(')=1.09 +/- 0.09. The equations of state derived from the ultrasonic data are in good agreement with extrapolated results reported previously by Day and Ruoff [J. Appl. Phys. 44, 2447 (1973)] and Gerlich and Kennedy [J. Appl. Phys. 50, 3331 (1978)] who carried out measurements up to 0.2 and 1.0 GPa, respectively. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.