nikotyna1939
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Titanium metal extraction using thermite reaction with calcium fluoride as the flux in argon atmosphere ?
Can you extract titanium metal from titanium dioxide and magnesium metal powder using thermite reaction with calcium fluoride as the flux in argon
atmosphere at normal pressure condition
[Edited on 31-3-2025 by nikotyna1939]
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bnull
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Why the argon atmosphere? You sure don't need that.
@blogfast25 wrote about Titanium metal from TiO2 thermite reaction back in 2008.
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nikotyna1939
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Argon atmosphere reasons
I'm planning to use argon atmosphere to increase titanium metal recovery
and decrease the possibility of oxygen and nitrogen contamination
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Deathunter88
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Quote: Originally posted by nikotyna1939  | I'm planning to use argon atmosphere to increase titanium metal recovery
and decrease the possibility of oxygen and nitrogen contamination |
Thermite is not the right choice if you want a product that doesn't have minute gas impurities. Any water adsorbed in your starting materials will
introduce oxygen and hyrogen into your product, not to mention many oxides will form free oxygen when hot enough (IE in a thermite).
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bnull
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What is the intended use for titanium? Salts, element collection? Because, for structural uses, it will be cheaper to buy it ready-made.
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nikotyna1939
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Uses for my own Titanium metal
I wanted to make distiller for distilling alcohols and plastic pyrolysis and purifying hydrocarbons
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nikotyna1939
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Titanium metal price
In my country titanium metal is very expensive the price its about $60 USD per Kg not include the shipping cost.
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nikotyna1939
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Titanium metal properties
I'm planning use titanium metal because is the inertness and non toxic properties
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bnull
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If you have ways to purify the metal (the best you'll get from thermite is an impure alloy) and work it into a suitable shape, is really interested in
building the thing yourself and, most important, know how to do it, it can be done. But it will be an exercise in frustration and much more
expensive than just buying an apparatus made of stainless steel. Stainless steel, as I wrote in the other thread, is dirty cheap and available
everywhere; I'm yet to see restrictions or bans on the sale or possession of stainless steel itself. Take a look at eBay or Aliexpress.
Edit: One more thing. One way to assess the feasibility of a project is to estimate the costs, not only money but time spent on it. Take out your
calculator and look up the prices.
- To make 1 kg of titanium you need 1.67 kg of TiO2 and 1 kg of Mg powder. The thermite method has a yield around 50%, so
the total masses are 3.33 kg of TiO2 and 2 kg of Mg powder to produce 1 kg of titanium;
- The metal produced is not pure; besides being an alloy of titanium and magnesium of indefinite composition, it will have dissolved gases and
oxides in it. You can't use it as it is because of corrosion, embrittlement and so on. To purify it, the best way is electrowinning, using molten (850
°C) mixed salts as electrolyte. If you have equipment to do that, OK. If not, then you need to outsource the job;
- Titanium is not an easy metal to work, especially in regards to soldering and shaping. If you can do that, fine. If not, you gotta hire one who
knows (a specialized welder or company).
See how much each step would cost you and if you are able (have the equipment and knowledge and time) to do it. If you can't afford the whole thing or
do not have that much spare time or knowledge or equipment (or money), leave it alone and find another way.
[Edited on 1-4-2025 by bnull]
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vertexrocketry
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https://graysci.com/chapter-five/homemade-titanium/
[Edited on 1-4-2025 by vertexrocketry]
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clearly_not_atara
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You'd be surprised.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11663-024-03251-7
The use of cerium makes it pretty impractical, of course.
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bnull
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The page you suggested has a link to the post "On Titanium, Thermite, the Bronze Age and... Drywall!", which happened to be written in 2008 by Gert
Meyers, aka @blogfast25, who started the "Titanium metal from TiO2 thermite reaction" thread I linked to above. Small world, eh?
They used molten magnesium in molten MgCl2-KCl-CeCl3, so it's not exactly thermite (could we call it a "slow-burning
thermite"?). But it is really interesting and also has another very interesting article under "Similar content": Highly Efficient Titanium Powder
Production via Electro-Reduction of TiO2 in Commercial CaCl2 Molten Salt: Mechanism and Optimization Investigation (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-024-06945-0). This one looks quite simple despite giving non home-processable titanium powder. I
think I'll take a look at both (when I manage to find copies). Thanks.
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clearly_not_atara
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^The FFC process is really shockingly simple. I wouldn't be surprised if you could do it at home. It does kind of suck the air out of the room in
titanium research because everything else is invalidated if they can get useful titanium out of it at scale.
The Beijing process and its variants (including the rebranded "Chinuka" process which is the same thing but rebranded to not scare Western investors)
are also pretty interesting. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-materials...) The Chinese don't actually call it the Beijing process; they call it the
University blah blah blah Beijing process (Chinese universities have very long names) but anyway it's like this:
2 TiO2 + 4 C >> Ti2OC + 3 CO
Ti2OC [anode in NaCl/KCl] >> Ti4+ + CO + CO2 + 4e-
Ti4+ + 4 e- >> Ti (s)
| Quote: | | Further chemical analysis showed that the oxygen content in the powder was as low as 210 ppm. |
But you
probably couldn't do this at home due to the difficulty in sintering.
So instead, I've attached a different paper also describing the operation of the FFC process at small scale for any members who might be interested in
producing (probably somewhat crude but chemically usable) titanium.
Attachment: 10.1515_htmp-2012-0044.pdf (2.3MB)
This file has been downloaded 3 times
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