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Making of tantalum powder using the hunter process

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Abstract

Tantalum powder was made from potassium heptafluorotantalate (K2TaF7) using sodium as a reductant based on the Hunter metallothermic reduction method. The apparatus for the experiment was designed and built specifically for the present study. The tantalum particle size greatly decreased as the reduction temperature decreased from 860 to 740°C. The particle size was fairly uniform, varying from 2–3 μm to submicron sizes depending on the reaction temperature. Holding the reactants for more than 10 minutes after the completion of a sodium feeding caused irregular particle growth, thereby affecting particle size uniformity. It was found to be possible to agglomerate the powder to tens of micrometers in size by a vacuum heat treatment at 1350°C. The formation of Ta2C during the heat treatment shows that care must be taken to prevent contamination from the furnace environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Minerals and Materials Processing Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 30, Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, 305-350, Daejeon, Korea

    Sung-Wook Cho, Gunchoo Shim, Je-Shin Park & Joon-Su Kim

  2. Fixon Co. Ltd, 1507-75, Singeum-ri, Okgok-myeon, Gwangyang-si, 545-833, Jeonnam, Korea

    In-Sung Bae, Jae-Sik Yoon & Seong-Man Jeong

Authors
  1. Sung-Wook Cho
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  2. Gunchoo Shim
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  3. Je-Shin Park
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  4. Joon-Su Kim
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  5. In-Sung Bae
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  6. Jae-Sik Yoon
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  7. Seong-Man Jeong
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Correspondence to Sung-Wook Cho.

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Cho, SW., Shim, G., Park, JS. et al. Making of tantalum powder using the hunter process. Met. Mater. Int. 12, 51–56 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03027523

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03027523

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