The production of Titanium Powder via Hydrogen Reduction of Titanium Tetrachloride by Inductively Coupled RF plasma

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic Of Korea

^* sohn@knu.ac.kr

Abstract

In this study, the production of titanium powder via hydrogen reduction of titanium tetrachloride by inductively coupled radio frequency plasma was investigated. While titanium tetrachloride is hard to be reduced by hydrogen thermodynamically, dissociated hydrogen radical which formed from hydrogen gas passing through the plasma can react with titanium tetrachloride to form hydrochloric acid and subsequently produce titanium. The frequency of generator used in this experiment was 13.56 MHz and input power was varied. The characteristics of the powder such as powder size, size distribution, and phases were analyzed with x-ray diffractometer, field emission scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer and transmission electron microscope. The deposited height of titanium powders, after 4 minutes reaction, were 4.004 μm and loosely attached that could be easily collected. The morphology of powders was found to be more spherical with the increase in applied input power. Most of the powders were composed of titanium and oxygen. The average diameter of powders was approximately 200 nm.