Abstract:
TiFe alloy was prepared directly by electrolytic reduction from the mixture of TiO
2 and Fe
2O
3 in molten CaCl
2 at 1173 K and 3.1 V. The reduced product was TiFe with an oxygen content of 0.43% in mass fraction after electrolyzing for 10 h. The whole electrolysis process, roughly, includes two periods:the reduction of Fe element and the forming of TiFe. In the initial stage of electrolysis, Fe element is reduced first prior to titanium and CaTiO
3 is formed. Then the external cathode is reduced to TiFe. Meanwhile, the cathode is layered:the external loose layer mainly contains TiFe and the inner layer, which is much harder and more compact, chiefly consists of Fe and CaTiO
3. Electrochemical behavior test shows that the discharge capacity of TiFe alloy produced by electrolysis without activation is about 33 mA·h·g
-1 and TiFe alloy by this performance is better than those prepared by other methods.