Electrolytic production of Ti-Ge intermetallics from oxides in molten CaCl2-NaCl
(1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferrometallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China;
2. Center for Electrochemistry, Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA;
3. Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, United Kingdom)
2. Center for Electrochemistry, Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA;
3. Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, United Kingdom)
Abstract: Titanium germanium intermetallics (TixGey)were directly prepared from titanium oxide (TiO2) and germanium oxide (GeO2) powders mixture by using an electrodeoxidation process. The electrochemical experiment was carried out in a molten flux CaCl2-NaCl at 800 °C with a potential of 3.0 V. The results show that monolithic germanide Ti5Ge3 intermetallic can be directly produced from TiO2-GeO2 or CaTiO3-GeO2 precursors (both molar ratios are 5:3), and the obtained Ti5Ge3 powders exhibit homogenous particle structure. In addition, the phase composition of the final product can be dramatically affected by the initial molar ratio of TiO2 to GeO2. The reaction mechanism of the electrodeoxidation process was discussed based on the experimental results. It is suggested that the electrodeoxidation process is an environmentally friendly method for the preparation of Ti-Ge intermetallics.
Key words: Ti-Ge intermetallics; oxides; electrodeoxidation; molten salt