An Innovative Process for Production of Ti Metal Powder via TiSx from TiN

This work presents a new processing concept for production of Ti metal powder from FeTiO 3 via TiN and TiS x . Because FeTiO 3 can be converted to TiN by the carbothermal reduction and nitridation method, TiN was taken as the starting material. Ti 2.45 S 4 and TiS 2 powders were completely formed from TiN at 1473 K (1200 °C) in 3.6 and 10.8 ks, respectively. Either CS 2 or S 2 gas could be used for the sulfurization process. The sulfides were then converted to α -Ti metal powders by the Ono and Suzuki (OS) process in molten CaCl 2 with a small addition of CaS. Employing S 2 gas in the sulfurization step remarkably reduced the carbon contamination to 0.01 and 0.1 wt pct C after the sulfurization and reduction processes, respectively. α -Ti powders with spherical morphology and foil-like Ti sheets containing less than 0.15 wt pct O were obtained from the electrochemical reduction in molten CaCl 2 -0.5 mol pct CaS. The approach applied here offers a promising strategy to design an innovative process for production of commercial grade Ti powders via TiS x and TiN from FeTiO 3 by nitridation, sulfurization, and OS processes.