It is a toxic, corrosive, colorless gas, with a density of about 13 kg/m3 (22 lb/cu yd) (roughly 11 times heavier than air).

[4] WF6 is commonly used by the semiconductor industry to form tungsten films, through the process of chemical vapor deposition.

[7] At 2.3 °C it freezes into a white solid having a cubic crystalline structure, the lattice constant of 628 pm and calculated density 3.99 g/cm3.

The decomposition is usually facilitated by mixing WF6 with hydrogen, silane, germane, diborane, phosphine, and related hydrogen-containing gases.

The decomposition reaction is fast, but saturates when the tungsten layer thickness reaches 10–15 micrometers.

The saturation occurs because the tungsten layer stops diffusion of WF6 molecules to the Si substrate which is the only catalyst of molecular decomposition in this process.

Also, the deposited tungsten shows poor adhesion to the silicon dioxide which is the main passivation material in semiconductor electronics.

[4] The characteristic features of tungsten deposition from the WF6/SiH4 are high speed, good adhesion and layer smoothness.

The drawbacks are explosion hazard and high sensitivity of the deposition rate and morphology to the process parameters, such as mixing ratio, substrate temperature, etc.

[4] Deposition from WF6/GeH4 mixture is similar to that of WF6/SiH4, but the tungsten layer becomes contaminated with relatively (compared to Si) heavy germanium up to concentrations of 10–15%.