Carbothermic Reduction of Alumina with Carbon in Vacuum
J. Cent. South Univ. (2012) 19: 1813−1816 DOI: 10.1007/s1177101212130 Carbothermic reduction of alumina with carbon in vacuum YU Qingchun(郁青春), YUAN Haibin(袁海滨), ZHU Fulong(朱富龙), ZHANG Han(张晗), WANG Chen(王辰), LIU Dachun(刘大春), YANG Bin(杨斌) National Engineering Laboratory of Vacuum Metallurgy, Key Laboratory of Breeding Base of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clear Utilization in Yunnan Province, State Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China © Central South University Press and SpringerVerlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 Abstract: Carbothermic reduction alumina in vacuum was conducted, and the products were analysed by means of XRD and gas chromatography. Thermodynamic analysis shows that in vacuum the initial carbothermic reduction reaction temperature reduces compared with that under normal pressure, and the preferential order of products is Al4O4C, Al4C3, Al2OC, Al2O and Al. Experiment results show that the carbothermic reduction products of alumina are Al4O4C and Al4C3, and neither Al2OC, Al2O or Al was found. During the carbothermic reduction process, the reaction rate of Al2O3 and carbon decreases gradually with increasing time. Meanwhile, lower system pressure or higher temperature is beneficial to the carbothermic reduction of alumina process. Al4O4C is firstly formed in the carbothermic reaction, and then Al4C3 is formed in lower system pressure or at higher temperature. Key words: alumina; carbothermic reduction; vacuum; aluminum the formation of aluminum carbide and oxycarbide 1 Introduction byproducts complicates the carbothermic reduction and chlorination process. The thermodynamic study of Aluminum is currently produced industrially via the chemical reactions provides a basic understanding of the HallHe´roult process by dissolving Al2O3 in fused process prior to designing suitable reaction experiments, NaFAlF3 (cryolite) followed by direct current and provides a useful guideline for the selection of electrolysis.
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