Williamson-Hall study on synthesized nanocrystalline tungsten carbide (WC)

WC nanoparticles were synthesised by chemical route at 600 °C. The synthesized WC nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and TEM. The XRD results revealed that the sample product was crystalline with a hexagonal phase. High magnification transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that WC sample is spherical in shape with particle size 38.8 nm. X-ray peak broadening analysis was used to evaluate the crystallite sizes and lattice strain by the Williamson-Hall (W-H) analysis. The physical parameters such as strain, stress, and energy density values were calculated precisely for all the reflection peaks of XRD corresponding to hexagonal phase of WC. The three models yield different strain values which may be due to the anisotropic nature of the material. The mean particle size of WC nanoparticles estimated from Scherrer's formula and W-H analysis is highly intercorrelated with the observed size of TEM.