Benson, L.L., Mellor, I. and Jackson, M. (2016) Direct reduction of synthetic rutile using the FFC process to produce low-cost novel titanium alloys. Journal of Materials Science, 51 (9). pp. 4250-4261. ISSN 0022-2461
Abstract
Typically, pure TiO2 in pellet form has been utilised as the feedstock for the production of titanium metal via the solid state extraction FFC process. For the first time, this paper reports the use of loose synthetic rutile powder as the feedstock, along with its full characterisation at each stage of the reduction. The kinetics and mechanism of the reduction of synthetic rutile to a low oxygen titanium alloy have been studied in detail using a combination of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, oxygen analysis, and X-ray fluorescence techniques. Partial reductions of synthetic rutile enabled a reaction pathway to be determined, with full reduction to a low oxygen titanium alloy occurring at 16 h. Major remnant elements from the Becher process within the feedstock were followed throughout the process, with a particular emphasis placed on the reduction behaviour of iron within the alloy. Although impurities such as Fe, Al, and Mn are found in the feedstock and alloy, no major deviations from previously reported reaction mechanisms and phase transformations utilising a pure porous (25–30 % porosity) TiO2 precursor were found. Following reduction, the titanium alloy powder produced from synthetic rutile (approx. 3500 ppm oxygen) has been consolidated via an emerging rapid sintering technique, and its microstructure analysed. This work will act as the baseline for future alloy development projects aimed at producing low-cost titanium alloys directly from synthetic rutile. Producing titanium alloys directly from synthetic rutile may negate the use of master alloy additions to Ti in the future.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 31 Mar 2016 08:44 |
Last Modified: | 31 Mar 2016 08:44 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9718-1 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10853-015-9718-1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97028 |