Preparation of titanium powders by calciothermic reduction of titanium dioxide

Abstract

To develop an effective process for titanium powders production, a calciothermic reduction process of pigment titanium dioxide (w(TiO₂)>98%), based on the preform reduction process (PRP), was investigated by means of XRD, SEM and EDS. In this process, the mixture of TiO₂ powder and CaCl₂ was pressed into pieces as feed preform and was reduced by calcium vapor. Titanium powders was recovered after leaching from the reduced preform with hydrochloric acid and deionized water. The results indicate when the mass ratio of CaCl₂ to TiO₂ is about 1:4 and at a constant temperature of 1 273 K for 6 h in vacuum furnace, titanium powders with 99.55% purity by EDS analysis and irregular shape (8–15 μm in particle size) are obtained.

Keywords

titanium powders / titanium dioxide / calciothermic reduction / calcium chloride

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