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Spheroidization of Titanium Carbide Powders by Induction Thermal Plasma Processing
Author(s) -
Li YaLi,
Ishigaki Takamasa
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.2001.tb00939.x
Subject(s) - materials science , titanium carbide , plasma , hydrogen , argon , particle (ecology) , evaporation , carbide , titanium , particle size , plasma processing , plasma torch , metallurgy , chemical engineering , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , oceanography , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering , geology
Highly spherical particles of titanium carbide (TiC) have been produced by in‐flight heat processing of irregularly shaped TiC powders in an aerosol reactor under argon‐hydrogen and argon‐helium induction thermal plasma. The spherical powders obtained by the plasma treatment consist of unagglomerated and uniform particles with mean diameters between 25 and 28.5 μm, which is smaller than the original TiC particle mean diameters (29.5 μm) because of partial evaporation of the particles during the plasma treatment. The spheroidization ratio of the treated TiC powders increases with the increase of hydrogen flow rate in plasma gases and the reduction of powder feeding carrier gas flow rate. Under certain processing conditions, the TiC powders have been completely spheroidized. The morphology and structure of individual spherical particles were examined and their formation mechanism was discussed based on calculation of heat transfer kinetics of the particles in the thermal plasma.