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.
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