LAUSR

In this work, a novel thermochemical method was introduced to produce fine titanium alloy powders with low oxygen content by utilizing hydrogenated titanium alloy powders mixed with Ca and CaCl2 powders. The stability of Ti-O solid solution decreased when the hydrogen was released in situ during the thermochemical process. Hydrogen could increase the oxygen potentials of Ti-O solid solution alloys, and the average particle size could be mainly preserved at 35.23 μm after the heat treatment. Experimental results reveal that the oxygen content in final products could be remarkably decreased to 0.146 wt.% at low temperature of 680°C compared to the results of 0.67 wt.% when utilizing pre-dehydrogenated powders instead. Moreover, hydrogen can be easily reduced by heat treatment, and the experimental results show the remaining hydrogen concentration is 0.078 wt.%. This work is expected to provide a one-step solution by integrating the dehydrogenation with the deoxygenation process in to produce fine metal powders with low oxygen content.