Analysis of structure defects in tungsten carbide

TEM studies are performed on tungsten carbide–cobalt composites in order to analyse the structural defects of the hard phase (WC). Dislocation networks with or without extended nodes and stacking faults on prismatic planes are frequently observed. The Burgers vector 1/6 〈1123〉 is found to be the displacement vector of the fault enclosed in the nodes. The same displacement vector also describes the stacking fault on prismatic planes. Another stacking fault is found and analysed as a displacement in a second order pyramidal plane.