Is tungsten carbide harder than a diamond?
No, it is not.
Many people know tungsten carbide because of its high hardness. However, they may not have an exact recognizance of the hardness of tungsten carbide. And some of them may ask, which tool material is harder? Tungsten carbide or diamond? Here, we can give you the answer that tungsten carbide is a very hard material, however, diamond is the hardest material in the world.
What is a diamond?
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. They are also the reason that diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth.
The hardness of diamond
Minerals are assigned a number between 1 and 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale to describe how resistant to scratching they are. Diamonds are given the highest number, a 10. There is nothing that can scratch a diamond except another diamond.
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What is tungsten carbide?
Tungsten carbide is a gray powder with equal elements of tungsten and carbon. Only when tungsten carbide powder is compacted and sintered into certain tungsten carbide products, it can obtain high hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, strength, and so on.
The hardness of tungsten carbide
The Mohs' hardness of tungsten carbide is around 9, which boasts a level of hardness second to diamond. It is the high hardness that makes tungsten carbide be used widely in mining, oil, gas, cutting, digging, tunneling, and even in the automobile and medical industries.
So why diamond is harder than tungsten carbide? I think this can be explained by the element carbon.
The structure of carbon extends in space and produces a rigid 3-D network of carbon atoms with directional covalent bonds throughout the lattice. It is very difficult to break extended covalent bonding. Carbon has 3 allotropes: diamond, graphite, and fullerene. Among these, diamond is the hardest allotrope of carbon because it is a strong and rigid three-dimensional structure.
In the structure of tungsten carbide, carbon atoms exist. However, the structure of tungsten carbide is not as strong as diamond. Although tungsten carbide is not the hardest tool material in the modern industry, its high hardness and cost efficiency win many users.
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