A Study on the Examination of Reaction Mechanism for Molten Salt Electrolysis of Titanium Dioxide

摘要

The molten salt electrolysis is applied to reduce titanium dioxide to titanium metal using calcium chloride as an electrolyte and the reaction mechanism of the reduction process is examined by analyzing the reaction products. The process conditions to obtain titanium metal for 900 deg C correspond to 2.9-3.2 V and 24 hours. The reaction products for 2.9 V at 900 deg C include irregular-shaped titanium oxides such as Ti_4O_7, Ti_3O_5 and Ti_2O_3 and polyhedral CaTiO_3. Using these microstructure analysis, the sequential reaction mechanism for the electrochemical reduction of titanium dioxide to titanium is proposed.