EFFECT OF MECHANICAL ACTIVATION ON CARBOTHERMIC SYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM CARBIDE FROM ILMENITE CONCENTRATE

The synthesis of advanced materials from low cost minerals concentrates is a new field of study that has great potential applications. In this paper, the effect of milling time on the temperature of initiation and amount of carbothermic reduction of ilmenite has been investigated. The stoichiometric molar ratio (1:4) of ilmenite to graphite was mixed and mechanically activatedfor 30-70 hours at room temperature. Then homogenized mixture heated for one hour at 1000-1400°C in coal reducing atmosphere. The results show that complete conversion of ilmenite to Fe and TiC can not be achieved in the unmilled powder at 1400°C, while with milling of mixture for 30 hours, complete reduction of ilmenite to Fe and TiC at 1400° C was observed. With increasing milling time from 30 to 70 hours the temperature of complete reduction decreases from 1400 to 1200° C. Leaching of final product in HCI 3% solution dissolve Fe but leave pure titanium carbide intact. Determination of TiC unit cell size from X-ray diffraction pattern shows that unit cell size of synthesized TiC is less than stoichiometric one, which suggests that some oxycarbide phases (TiCxO1-x), is present into the final product.