The characteristics of titanium tetrachloride plasmas in a transferred-arc systems /

A stable transferred arc was produced with plasmagas containing up to 20 percent molar TiCl$ sb4$ in argon, helium and argon/hydrogen mixtures. This was achieved by replacing the commonly-used thoriated tungsten cathode tip with a tantalum carbide tip. Thus, corrosive reactions at the cathode surface, which were shown to be the cause of the observed instability, were prevented. This allowed the characteristics of stable titanium tetrachloride plasmas in a transferred arc reactor to be investigated.Furthermore, an investigation was conducted into the feasibility of collecting titanium metal from the dissociated TiCl$ sb4$ molecule in the plasmagas. The titanium metal was collected in a molten bath, which also served as the anode in the transferred arc system. Three anode bath compositions were used in this study. Two of them, namely titanium and zirconium, were not able to reduce recombined titanium subchlorides in the bath. The third aluminum, was a reducing bath. When aluminum was used, about 60 percent of all titanium fed into the reactor was collected.Finally, phenomena occurring on the surface of a thoriated tungsten cathode were studied in a transferred-arc reactor using argon or helium as the plasmagas. The effect of cathode geometry on the rate and mechanisms of cathode erosion were investigated. It was shown that the surface temperature of flat-tip cathodes operating in argon is near the melting point of tungsten. On the other hand, the surface temperature of flat-tip cathodes operating in helium and pointed-tip cathodes operating in either helium or argon are near the boiling point of tungsten. Some of the material vapourized from the cathode was redeposited on the cathode surface, forming crystals whose morphology and composition depended on their distance from the arc root and the plasmagas composition