Deoxygenation of Ti metal: A review of processes in literature

Abstract Titanium is a highly valued metal for its outstanding properties. Its production is costly due to its strong reactivity with oxygen, thus there are strong demands to reduce oxygen content in Ti scraps, turnings, chips, chunks, and powders for the purpose of recycling, reuse and high-quality powder production. This article reviews the current methods for reducing oxygen content (i.e. methods of deoxygenation) in Ti and its alloys, particularly metal in powder form, including Ca metal-based methods, Mg metal-based methods, electrochemical methods, and others based on remelting. Even though the details of the operations of each process vary, they share some of the same theoretical basis of relative chemical stabilities. Here we outline and evaluate these methods in terms of the fundamental principles, processing techniques, results and the pros and cons of each method.