HARD PARTICLES, HARD MATERIAL, CUTTING TOOL, METHOD OF PRODUCING HARD PARTICLES

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide hard particles suitable as a raw material of a hard material having defect resistance, which can serve as an alternative for hard metals, and to provide a hard material and a cutting tool using the hard particles.SOLUTION: The hard particles include a core and a shell covering the core. The core is composed of at least one of carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides containing at least one element selected from Group 4, 5 and 6 elements other than W of the Periodic Table, and Si. The shell is composed of polycrystalline WC of an average crystal grain size of 20-50 nm. The hard particles can have a core coated with polycrystalline WC by: dissolving a tungstic acid compound and an organic acid in a basic aqueous solution to disperse cores in a precursor solution; subjecting the precursor solution having the cores dispersed to ultrasonic cavitation; and dry firing the cores in a state where surfaces thereof are coated with the precursor.