Method of producing metallic tantalum
AssigneeMetalysis Limited
InventorsIan Mellor, Greg Doughty
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Abstract
A method of producing metallic tantalum comprises the steps of providing a precursor comprising a tantalate of a first metal, arranging the precursor material in contact with a molten salt in an electrolytic cell, the electrolysis cell further comprising an anode and a cathode arranged in contact with the molten salt, and applying a potential between the anode and the cathode such that the precursor material is reduced to tantalum. The first metal is an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. The anode does not comprise a carbon material, which prevents contamination of the tantalum and improves current efficiency of the process.
Claims31
A method of producing metallic tantalum comprising the steps of,
- providing a precursor material, the precursor material comprising a tantalate of a first metal, in which the first metal is an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal,
- arranging the precursor material in contact with a molten salt in an electrolytic cell, the electrolytic cell further comprising an anode and a cathode arranged in contact with the molten salt, and
- applying a potential between the anode and the cathode such that the precursor material is reduced to tantalum, in which the anode does not comprise a carbon material;
- in which the precursor material is arranged in contact with the cathode and in which the anode comprises a molten second metal, the second metal being different to the first-metal and having a melting point that is sufficiently low enough for the second metal to be in the molten state during reduction of the precursor material, in which substantially all of the oxygen released from the precursor material when the potential is applied between the anode and the cathode reacts with the molten second metal at the anode to form an oxide between the oxygen and the second metal.
A method of producing metallic tantalum comprising the steps of,
- providing a precursor material, the precursor material comprising a tantalate of a first metal, in which the first metal is an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal,
- arranging the precursor material in contact with a molten salt in an electrolytic cell, the electrolytic cell further comprising an anode and a cathode arranged in contact with the molten salt,
- in which the precursor material is arranged in contact with the cathode and in which the anode comprises a molten second metal, the second metal being different to the first metal and having a melting point that is sufficiently low enough for the second metal to be in the molten state during reduction of the precursor material, in which oxygen released from the precursor material when the potential is applied between the anode and the cathode reacts with the molten second metal at the anode, and
- applying a potential between the anode and the cathode such that the precursor material is reduced to tantalum;
- in which the anode does not comprise a carbon material;
- in which a proportion of the second metal is deposited at the cathode when the potential is applied between the anode and the cathode, such that the metallic tantalum comprises a proportion of the second metal;
- and comprising the further step of separating the second metal from the metallic tantalum to provide a product that comprises less than 0.1 wt % of the second metal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.