KINETIC STUDY OF SYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM CARBIDE BY METHANOTHERMALREDUCTION OFTITANIUM DIOXIDE

Abstract: Reduction of the Titanium dioxide, TiO2, by methane was investigated in this work. The thermodynamic of reaction was examined and found favorable. The reaction of titanium dioxide with methane was carried out in the temperature range 1150°C to 1450°C at atmospheric pressure with industrial high porosity pellets prepared from titanium dioxide powder. The evolved gas analyzing method was used for determination of the extent of reduction rate. The gas products of the reaction are mostly CO and trace amount of CO2 and H2O. The synthesized product powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for elucidating solid phase compositions. The effect of varying temperature was studied during the reduction. The conversion-time data have been interpreted by using the grain model. For first order reaction with respect to methane concentration, the activation energy of titanium dioxide reduction by methane is found to be 51.4 kcal/gmole. No detailed investigation of kinetic and mechanism of the reaction was reported in literatures.