Electrolytic Preparation of Titanium from Fused Salts

Abstract

Reduced titanium chlorides dissolved in fused alkali and alkaline earth chlorides may be electrolyzed in diaphragmed cells under an inert gas atmosphere to yield ductile titanium as adherent, crystalline deposits. The reduced titanium chlorides are prepared in situ by adding TiCl4 through a hollow cathode at a controlled feed to current ratio.

Development of the Fray-Farthing-Chen Cambridge Process: Towards the Sustainable Production of Titanium and Its Alloys

“…[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93] Now, the FFC-Cambridge process has been in industrial trial for over 16 years, 94,95 and the developments are steady and promising toward a bright future (cf. Metalysis TM and GLABAT TM in SM).…”

Electrolytic Ti Powder Production from Ore Sources

“…Kroll predicted titanium would be produced electrolytically as a contrast to his Mg reduction of TiCl 4 process [15] . There have been major efforts to commercially produce titanium electrolytically inherently as a powder using TiCl 4 as a feed [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . Among the major difficulties of using covalent bonded TiCl 4 as a feed for electrolytically producing titanium is its lack of solubility in fused salts, inability to form ionic complexes, and titanium's multiple oxidation states which undergo disproportionations.…”

“…Heretofore, electrolytic processing to produce titanium was deposition on a large plate type cathode [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] which required exchange in and out of the meticulous inert atmosphere of the cell without any air ingress because of the extreme sensitivity of titanium and its ions to oxidation. Not only was it difficult to exchange cathodes, maintaining an inert atmosphere at under 50ppm oxygen in the cell, the titanium ion concentration drag-out of salt adhering to the deposited loosely adhering powder was lost, some titanium powder dropped off the plate cathode to the bottom of the cell, and washing of the cathode contributed to high passivation oxidation of the titanium powder as well as creating a salt water stream that nowadays is an environmental issue.…”

The Equilibrium between Titanium Ions and Metallic Titanium in the Molten Binary Mixtures of LiCl

“…[1][2][3] These oxidation states undergo disproportionation reactions leading to a low current efficiency and formation of metallic muds in molten cells. Therefore, the research on the equilibrium between titanium ions and metallic titanium is very important for the process of electrodepositing titanium from fused electrolytes.…”