Fabrication of Niobium Powder for Solid-electrolyte Capacitors

The niobium capacitor showed somewhat more unstable characteristics than the commercial tantalum capacitors, but is nonetheless considered applicable as a future substitute for tantalum capacitors. In this study, niobium powder was fabricated by metallothermic reduction process using $K_2NbF_7$ as the raw materials, KCl and KF as the diluents and Na as the reducing agent. The niobium particle size greatly decreased from 0.7um to 0.2 um as the amount of diluent increased. However if a higher surface area of powder is required, more diluents need to be used in the said method in order to produce niobium powder. The niobium powder morphology and particle size are very sensitive to a amount of sodium excess. The particle size of niobium powder increased with a increasing amount of sodium excess. When more diluent and sodium are used, the niobium powder will be contaminated with more impurities such as Fe, Cr, Ni so on.

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