| 摘要 |
<p>A quantity of titanium (5) is heated in a crucible (1) to provide a melt (5), and a layer of slag (7), containing an ionizable titanium compound, such as titanium dioxide, along with ionizable slag constituents, is disposed on the top of the melt (5). The slag (7) is then heated to a molten state by direct current plasma arc heating with the melt (5) being anodic. After the slag (7) is molten, the polarity of the plasma arc heating is reversed so that the melt (5) is cathodic, causing the slag (7) to act as an electron transfer layer so that the titanium dioxide of the slag (7) is reduced to titanium and any dissolved oxygen in the melt (5) is converted to an ionic species of oxygen at the interface between the slag (7) and the melt (5). The resulting liquid titanium is combined with the melt (5), while the ionic species of oxygen is carried upwardly through the slag (7) and released from the slag layer (7) by an oxidation process. Additional quantities of titanium dioxide can be added to the slag (7) to continually convert the titanium dioxide to titanium under the reverse polarity plasma arc heating.</p> |
