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

Ti 3 AlC 2 is electrochemically synthesized from titanium-rich slag/Al 2 O 3 /C mixtures in molten salts. The intermediate products are systematically analyzed to investigate the formation process of Ti 3 AlC 2 . 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 CaCl 2 and CaCl 2 –NaCl) and temperatures (range of 800–1000 °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 Ti 3 AlC 2 particles possess an irregular plate-like morphology. It is suggested that the molten salt electrochemical synthesis technology is a promising process to produce Ti 3 AlC 2 and/or other MAX phases from multicomponent complex ores.