A new experimental approach for accelerated investigations of carbothermal reactions

The carbothermal process has been investigated with an experimental approach based on a modern commercial carrier gas hot extraction analyser which allows kinetic studies of reduction reactions as a function of temperature and time with in-situ CO(2) analysis. The influences of various parameters such as different solid starting materials - mainly fine grained TiO2 and ZrO2 powders and types of carbon (active carbon, carbon black, graphite) - in stoichiometric mixtures, or different gas flow conditions can be studied by this method. The concept includes a combination of dynamic measurements over a temperature range of 1000-2000 deg C and isothermal experiments at temperatures selected from certain temperature ranges. Solid reaction products were characterised ex-situ by chemical and phase analysis. The interpretation of the qualitative and quantitative results is in agreement with lab-scale and thermoanalytical investigations. The method should be applicable for further experiments to find faster and more information about new syntheses of hard materials based on carbothermal reduction