Recently H
2-Ar plasma arc melting, using a gas mixture of hydrogen and argon as a plasma generating gas, has been recognized to be available for refining of various metals.
In this work, deoxidation and decarburization of crude tantalum, prepared by carbon reduction of Ta
2O
5 with Ar plasma arc heating, has been investigated by using H
2-Ar plasma arc melting. Also the possibilities and conditions for winning high-purity and ductile tantalum metal has been examined.
The oxygen and carbon contents in tantalum obtained by carbon reduction smelting are dependent on the carbon to Ta
2O
5 mixing mole ratio, and the product of (%O) and (%C) in each tantalum is found to be almost constant. Therefore, The carbon/oxygen ratio in tantalum can be adjusted by changing the C/Ta
2O
5 ratio for the refining process that follows.
At the subsequent stage of H
2-Ar plasma arc melting, oxygen in tantalum can be quickly liberated but carbon is scarcely removed. As a result, ductile tantalum whose sum of oxygen and carbon is less than 100 mass ppm can be produced by the excellent deoxidation effect of H
2-Ar plasma arc melting for a high oxygen- and low carbon-bearing tantalum. Deoxidation is considered to be mainly caused by dissociated and activated hydrogen atoms in the H
2-Ar plasma gas. The evaporation of tantalum suboxide and tantalum, known in electron beam melting, is very small in this stage so that the loss of tantalum can be reduced.
View full abstract