Hydrogenation Behavior of Sponge Titanium

Titanium powders have been usually produced by de-hydrogenating treatment in vacuum with titanium hydride ($TiH_2$) powders prepared by milling of hydrogenated sponge titanium, $TiH_x$. The higher stoichiometry of x in $TiH_x$, whose maximum value is 2, is achieved, crushing behavior is easier. $TiH_x$ powder can be, therefore, easy to manufactured leading to obtain higher recovery factor of it. In addition, contamination of the powder can also minimized by the decrease of milling time. In this study, the hydrogenation behavior of sponge titanium was studied to find the maximum stoichiometry. The maximum stoichiometry in hydride formation of sponge titanium could be obtained at $750^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs leading to the formation of $TiH_{{\sim}1.99}$ and the treating temperatures lower or higher than $750^{\circ}C$ caused the poor stoichiometries by the low hydrogen diffusivity and un-stability of $TiH_x$, respectively. Such experimental behavior was compared with thermodynamically calculated one. The hydrogenated $TiH_{1.99}$ sponge was fully ball-milled under -325 Mesh and the purity of pure titanium powders obtained by de-hydrogenation was about 99.6%.

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