Synthesis of titanium powder by magnesiothermic reduction from titanium dioxide von Rafael Bolívar León

The aim of this research was to study a process to obtain titanium powder (2.9 wt% O) by magnesiothermic reduction of TiO2. The research included (1) a thermochemical simulation of the reaction to find the window process of the variable (2) a design of three different reactors which promote solid-liquid and solid-gas model reaction (3) 89 metallothermic reductions experiment to evaluate the influence of time, temperature, molar ratio of Mg/TiO2, size of TiO2 and shape of magnesium (4) 14 leaching processes of products by different mixtures of acid to evaluate purification of solid titanium metal by dissolution of Mg, MgO, Ni, Fe, magnesium titanates and titanium oxides (5) a pathway of the magnesiothermic. The conclusions of this work are (1) the high yield of titanium metal is achieved when a solid-gas reaction in a rotary movement of the reactants is promoted (2) the control of temperature is a sensible parameter because at temperatures higher than 1400°C a reoxidation of the Ti is present (3) the type of reactor was the key to obtain high yield of titanium powder (4) the sealed and rotary tube reactor with two compartments in which magnesium and TiO2 powder were placed separately was the best configuration (5) the mixture of 8 HCl% + 3 HNO3% at 20°C in 24 hours promotes the highest dissolution of sub-products and the lowest of titanium metal (6) irregular and semispherical particles of powder sizes between 5 to 20 µm were obtained.