The Microwave-Assisted Green Synthesis of TiC Powders.
MATERIALS 2016;
9:ma9110904. [PMID:
28774025 PMCID:
PMC5457278 DOI:
10.3390/ma9110904]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2016] [Revised: 11/02/2016] [Accepted: 11/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Titanium carbide (TiC) is an important engineering material and has found widespread applications. Currently, TiC is typically synthesized through carbothermal reduction, requiring a high temperature (ca. 1700–2300 °C) and long reaction time (ca. 10–20 h), which is not eco-friendly. During a conventional reaction path, anatase TiO2 (A-TiO2) was first converted to rutile TiO2 (R-TiO2), which was subsequently reduced to TiC. Herein, we explored the synthesis of TiC powders with the assistance of microwave heating. In particular, we achieved the conversion of A-TiO2, which was more reactive than R-TiO2 for the carbothermal reduction, to TiC, which was directly due to quick microwave heating. As such, the carbothermal reduction started at a much lower temperature of ca. 1200 °C and finished within 30 min when reacting at 1400 °C, leading to significant energy saving. This study shows that microwave-assisted synthesis can be an effective and green process for preparing TiC powders, which is promising for future large-scale production. The influence of the reaction temperature, the reaction duration, and the carbon content on the synthesis of TiC powders was investigated.
Collapse