The purpose of this study is to investigate the densification behavior and the corresponding microstructural evolution of tantalum and tantalum-tungsten alloy powders for explosively formed liners. The inherent inhomogeneous microstructures of tantalum manufactured by an ingot metallurgy might degrade the capability of the warhead. Therefore, to overcome such drawbacks, powder metallurgy was incorporated into the near-net shape process in this study. Spark plasma-sintered tantalum and its alloys with finer particle sizes exhibited higher densities and lower grain sizes. However, they were contaminated from the graphite mold during sintering. Higher compaction pressures in die and isostatic compaction techniques also enhanced the sinterability of the tantalum powders; however, a full densification could not be achieved. On the other hand, the powders exhibited full densification after being subjected to hot isostatic pressing over two times. Consequently, it was found that the hot isostatic-pressed tantalum might exhibit a lower grain size and a higher density as compared to those obtained in previous studies.

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  Surya T. Bijjala, Ryan Wilkerson, Chad Beamer, Pankaj Kumar
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• Thermal Stability and Weight Reduction of Al0.75V2.82CrZr Refractory High Entropy Alloy Prepared Via Mechanical Alloying
  Minsu Kim, Hansung Lee, Byungmin Ahn
  journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2023; 30(6): 478.     CrossRef

Metallic tantalum powder is manufactured by reducing tantalum oxide (Ta₂O₅) with magnesium gas at 1,073–1,223 K in a reactor under argon gas. The high thermodynamic stability of magnesium oxide makes the reduction reaction from tantalum oxide into tantalum powder possible. The microstructure after the reduction reaction has the form of a mixture of tantalum and magnesium oxide, and the latter could be entirely eliminated by dissolving in weak hydrochloric acid. The powder size in SEM microstructure for the tantalum powder increases after acid leaching in the range of 50–300 nm, and its internal crystallite sizes are observed to be 11.5 to 24.7 nm with increasing reduction temperatures. Moreover, the optimized reduction temperature is found to be 1,173 K as the minimum oxygen concentration is approximately 1.3 wt.%.

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• A review of tantalum resources and its production
  Xue WEI, Long-gong XIA, Zhi-hong LIU, Le-ru ZHANG, Qi-hou LI
  Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China.2023; 33(10): 3132.     CrossRef
• Valuable metal recovery from waste tantalum capacitors via cryogenic crushing-alkaline calcination-leaching process
  Longgong Xia, Xue Wei, Hongjun Wang, Fengchun Ye, Zhihong Liu
  Journal of Materials Research and Technology.2022; 16: 1637.     CrossRef

We report the feasibility of TaC production via self-propagating high temperature synthesis, and the influence of the initial green compact density on the final composite particle size. Experiments are carried out from a minimum pressure of 0.3 MPa, the pressure at which the initial green body becomes self-standing, up to 3 MPa, the point at which no further combustion occurs. The green density of the pellets varies from 29.99% to 42.97%, as compared with the theoretical density. The increase in green density decreases the powder size of TaC, and the smallest particle size is observed with 1.5 MPa, at 10.36 μm. Phase analysis results confirm the presence of the TaC phase only. In the range of 0.3-0.5 MPa, traces of unreacted Ta and C residues are detected. However, results also show the presence of only C residue in the matrix within the pressure range of 0.6-3.0 MPa.

The effect of heat treatment environment on the microstructure and properties of tantalum coating layer manufactured by kinetic spraying was examined. Heat treatments are conducted for one hour at 800°C, 900°C, and 1000°C in two different environments of vacuum and Ar gas. Evaluation of microstructure and physical properties are conducted. High density α- tantalum single phase coating layer with a porosity of 0.04% and hardness of 550 Hv can be obtained. As heat treatment temperature increases, porosity identically decreases regardless of heat treatment environment (vacuum and Ar gas). Hardness of heat treated coating layer especially in Ar gas environment deceases from 550 Hv to 490 Hv with increasing heat treatment temperature. That in vacuum environment deceases from 550 Hv to 530 Hv. The boundary between particles became vague as heat treatment temperature increases. Oxygen distribution of tantalum coating layer is minute after heat treatment in vacuum environment than Ar gas environment.

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• Sintering Behavior and Microstructures of Tantalum and Tantalum-Tungsten Alloys Powders
  Youngmoo Kim, Sung Ho Yang, Seong Lee, Sung Ho Lee, Joon-Woong Noh
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2020; 27(5): 373.     CrossRef