FeCl2–CaCl2 melt volumetric reduction by calcium dissolved in calcium chloride

The purpose of this study is to obtain highly dispersed powder suitable for spheroidization for further application in additive technologies. Volumetric reduction of the FeCl₂–CaCl₂ melt by calcium dissolved in CaCl₂ produced fine iron powder. The process consisted of three stages: preparation of melts containing FeCl₂ and Ca, their mixing and high-temperature aging at 800 °C for 1 hour. At the end of the process the frozen melt was divided into upper and bottom parts. The product from the upper part had a specific surface area of 7,60 m²/g, and for the lower part it was 5,38 m²/g, Average particle size was 157 μm for the former and 124 μm for the latter. After ultrasonic dispersion, it was reduced to 26 μm and 71 μm, respectively. Quantitative X-ray phase analysis showed that the main phase of powder is metallic iron (more than 97 wt.%). Therefore, research originality is the use of volumetric, intensive reduction of iron from chloride melts by calcium dissolved in its chloride. The uniqueness of the study consists in the product obtained, i.e. the main part of reduced iron is in the melt volume as linear aggregates 40 to 600 μm in length, 10 to 50 μm in diameter that are easily broken by ultrasonic dispersion into individual crystals with an average size of 26 μm. The results of the study demonstrated the feasibility of calcium-thermal production of fine iron powder.

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