Influence of oxygen concentration on mechanical properties of molybdenum powder during sintering

In this study, the influence of oxygen concentration on the mechanical properties of sintered bodies produced from commercial and low-oxygen molybdenum powder via pulsed-current-activated sintering was determined. The hardness of the sintered bodies increased with the sintering temperature up to 1,500 degrees C and then decreased with further temperature increase. The hardness of the sintered low-oxygen-molybdenum body was slightly higher than the rest of the sintered bodies. This was because the relative density of the sintered low-oxygen-molybdenum body increased more than that of others as the sintering temperature increased. Furthermore, the grain size of the sintered commercial-molybdenum body was larger than that of the sintered low-oxygen-molybdenum body. This was attributed to the positive effect of molybdenum oxide on grain growth during sintering. Thus, it was established that low-oxygen molybdenum powder can suppress grain growth during sintering, resulting in improved mechanical properties of the sintered bodies.