Molten Salt Electrochemical Synthesis of Ternary Carbide Ti3AlC2 from Titanium-Rich Slag

Ti3AlC2 is electrochemically synthesized from titanium-rich slag/Al2O3/C mixtures in molten salts. The intermediate products are systematically analyzed to investigate the formation process of Ti3AlC2. The results show that the synthesis process typically involves an electrodeoxidation process and in situ carburization/combination process. In addition, most of the undesired metallic oxides contained in the titanium-rich slag are removed effectively during the electrolysis process, and the removal mechanism of these undesired metallic oxides is further discussed. The influences of different molten salts (including molten CaCl2 and CaCl2-NaCl) and temperatures (range of 800-1000 degrees C) on the final products are also studied. The results show that these electrosynthesis conditions influence the morphology and phase composition of the products. The synthesized Ti3AlC2 particles possess an irregular plate-like morphology. It is suggested that the molten salt electrochemical synthesis technology is a promising process to produce Ti3AlC2 and/or other MAX phases from multicomponent complex ores.