Preparation of TiAl Alloy Powder by Reactive Synthesis in Molten KCl-LiCl Salt

Abstract

TiAl alloy powders were simply and economically prepared by reactive synthesizing of elemental powders in molten salt, and the synthesis process and powder characteristics were investigated . The results showed that the reaction in the molten salt was completed when the temperature was heated to 750°C. A higher content of salt resulted in a decreased particle size and the optimum content of salt for synthesizing TiAl alloy powders was 83 wt.%. The particle size of the synthesized powders was decreased with reducing the titanium particle size, and kept unchanged with the variation of Al powder particle. The oxygen content of the prepared powders was affected by the raw powder particles and was decreased to a level of less than 0.20 wt.% after the de-oxygenation processing. The atomic diffusion rate for titanium and aluminum was accelerated in the molten salt and their reaction temperature was decreased .