Electrolytic production of powder

摘要

A method of producing metallic powder comprises steps of arranging a volume of feedstock comprising a plurality of non-metallic particles within an electrolysis cell, causing a molten salt to flow through the volume of feedstock, and applying a potential between a cathode and an anode such that the feedstock is reduced to metal. In preferred embodiments the feedstock is a plurality of discrete powder particles and these particles are reduced to a corresponding plurality of discrete metallic particles. In advantageous embodiments, the feedstock may be sand.

主权项

1. A method for producing metallic powder comprising the steps of:
arranging a cathode and an anode in contact with a molten salt within an electrolysis cell, arranging a volume of feedstock comprising a plurality of non-metallic particles within the electrolysis cell, in which the volume of feedstock is arranged on an upper surface of the cathode and a lower surface of the anode is vertically spaced from the feedstock and the upper surface of the cathode, and in which the D90 particle size of the feedstock is no more than 100% greater than the D10 particle size of the feedstock and in which the particles making up the feedstock have an average particle diameter of less than 5 mm, and in which the feedstock has an average crystallite size that is greater than 10% of the average particle size, causing the molten salt to flow through the volume of feedstock, and applying a potential between the cathode and the anode such that the feedstock is reduced to metal.