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Magnesiothermic Reduction of TiO2 Assisted by LaCl3

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Abstract

Titanium (Ti) is produced by a multi-step process from Ti ore composed of Ti oxide including chlorination process. However, the smelting cost is a major factor that leads to an increase in the cost of Ti. To lower the cost of Ti, the development of a new technique for the direct production of metallic Ti from an oxide feed material is highly desired. However, owing to the high affinity between Ti and oxygen (O) and the high solubility of O in Ti, it is extremely difficult to produce metallic Ti with low O concentration which meets the level required by the industry. In this study, we developed a new method for producing Ti with a low O concentration directly from TiO2 by using Mg as a reductant, assisted by a rare earth oxychloride formation reaction. The production of Ti with a low O concentration was demonstrated using a magnesiothermic reduction of TiO2 in MgCl2–LaCl3 molten salt via a reduction reaction involving LaOCl formation: (TiO2 (s) + 2 Mg (l) + 2 LaCl3 (l) = Ti (s) + 2 MgCl2 (l) + 2 LaOCl (s)). An electrochemical method that produces metallic Ti from TiO2 with no consumption of rare earth elements and Mg was designed based on the experiment results. This process is expected to replace the current smelting processes of Ti as well as numerous other rare metals produced from raw oxide materials and contribute significantly to a decrease in the price of rare metals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. Akihiro Iizuka and Dr. Lingxin Kong at The University of Tokyo for their effective comments. This work was financially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (KAKENHI Grant No. 26220910 and 19H05623).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8505, Japan

    Takara Tanaka, Takanari Ouchi & Toru H. Okabe

  2. Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Takara Tanaka

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  1. Takara Tanaka
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Correspondence to Takanari Ouchi.

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Tanaka, T., Ouchi, T. & Okabe, T.H. Magnesiothermic Reduction of TiO2 Assisted by LaCl3. J. Sustain. Metall. 6, 667–679 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-020-00296-1

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