Reduction of TiO2 with hydrogen plasma

Experiments were performed in a thermal plasma furnace to examine the reduction of TiO2 by hydrogen plasma. The plasma gas composition was 50% hydrogen-50% argon, the plasma torch input power was 13 kW, the TiO2 initial mass was 10 g and the processing time was varied from 10 to 90 min. The reaction product contained between 67% and 73% titanium by mass for all tests. This level of reduction was consistent with chemical equilibrium modeling. There was no detectable enhancement of reduction due to the presence of atomic hydrogen. The Ti-O microstructures produced were characterized using quantitative SEM analysis. The microstructures showed a number of similarities with structures described by previous researchers.