Physical Properties
Tungsten carbide is high melting, 2,870 °C (5,200 °F), extremely hard (~9 Mohs scale, 1700–2400 Vickers number) with low electrical resistivity (~2×10−7 Ohm·m), comparable with that of some metals (e.g. vanadium 2×10−7 Ohm·m).
WC is readily wetted by both molten nickel and cobalt. Investigation of the phase diagram of the W-C-Co system shows that WC and Co form a pseudo binary eutectic. The phase diagram also shows that there are so-called η-carbides with composition (W,Co)6C that can be formed and the fact that these phases are brittle is the reason why control of the carbon content in WC-Co hard metals is important.
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