Direct production of low-oxygen-concentration titanium from molten titanium

Abstract

Titanium (Ti) is an attractive material, abundant in nature and possessing superior mechanical and chemical properties. However, its widespread use is significantly hampered by the strong affinity between titanium and oxygen (O), resulting in elevated manufacturing costs during the refining, melting, and casting processes. The current work introduces a high-throughput technique that effectively reduces the oxygen content in molten titanium to a level suitable for structural material applications (1000 mass ppm, equivalent to 0.1 mass%). This technique aspires to streamline the mass production of titanium by seamlessly integrating the refining, melting, and casting processes. The developed method leverages the high affinity of rare-earth metals, such as yttrium (Y), for oxygen. This method utilizes the formation reaction of their oxyhalides (YOF) to directly remove oxygen from liquid titanium, resulting in titanium with a significantly reduced oxygen content of 200 mass ppm. This technique enables the direct conversion of titanium oxide feeds into low-oxygen titanium without requiring conversion into intermediate compounds. Additionally, this process offers a pathway for the upgrade recycling of high-oxygen-content titanium scrap directly into low-oxygen titanium. Consequently, this technology holds the potential to dramatically lower titanium production costs, thereby facilitating its more widespread utilization.