Arc-plasma Reduction of Tantalum Oxide with Carbon

IR

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Metallic tantalum is one of the prominent refractory and corrosion-resistant metals. By the conventional production processes, however, tantalum metal powder is produced because of its high melting temperature. The plasma-arc furnace provides a stable high temperature. In this work, the carbon reduction of tantalum pentoxide has been investigated in a plasma-arc furnace. The sample is a mixture of tantalum pentoxide and graphite, vacuum pressed into a briquette and has been reduced at about 3100℃. Argon has been used as the arc gas. The optimum mixing ratio of carbon and tantalum pentoxide, C/Ta_2O_5 is 5.10～5.15. The sample, weighing 7g is fused within 60～70 seconds by plasma-arc heating and the reduction of molten tantalum oxide with solid carbon proceeds rapidly to approximately 99.5% Ta during this period. The reduction that follows in the molten state is slow. Within about 10 minutes, the maximum tantalum content of the massive metal product reaches 99.9% and the oxygen and carbon remaining in the product are 50ppm and 400～500ppm respectively.

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