High-Temperature (1700–1800°C) Electrochemical Preparation of Metallic Ti from Rutile: A Pathway of Step-by-Step Electrodeoxidization

The mechanism of producing metallic titanium by electrochemically reducing rutile (TiO2) at high temperatures was studied. First, the oxygen was successfully electroremoved from TiO2 at temperatures 1700, 1750, and 1800°C in molten CaF2 under a stable electrolytic potential of 2.5 V. Second, the electrodeoxidization process was studied with cyclic voltammetry (CV) tests at 1750°C. It was found that the electrochemical reduction for preparing metallic Ti from TiO2 at the high temperatures can be divided into several steps. In other words, the oxygen in TiO2 was electro-removed as a step-by-step pathway (TiO2→Ti4O7→Ti3O5/Ti2O3→TiO→Ti) at different electrolytic potentials. It unraveled the mechanism of electrochemical reduction of TiO2 at the high temperatures, which is helpful for monitoring the reduction procedure.