Structure and phase-composition of Ti-doped gas atomized Raney-type Ni catalyst precursor alloys

• The phase composition of Ti-doped Raney-Ni catalysts has been investigated.
• An additional phase, TiAl3, is identified alongside the expected phases.
• Virtually no Ti is dissolved in the expected Ni2Al3, NiAl3 and Al-eutectic phases.
• Mass balance indicates that the Ti occupancy of the Ti sites in TiAl3 is low.

Raney-type Ni precursor alloys containing 75 at.% Al and doped with 0, 0.75, 1.5 and 3.0 at.% Ti have been produced by a gas atomization process. The resulting powders have been classified by size fraction with subsequent investigation by powder XRD, SEM and EDX analysis. The undoped powders contain, as expected, the phases Ni2Al3, NiAl3 and an Al-eutectic. The Ti-doped powders contain an additional phase with the TiAl3 DO22 crystal structure. However, quantitative analysis of the XRD results indicate a far greater fraction of the TiAl3 phase is present than could be accounted for by a simple mass balance on Ti. This appears to be a (TixNi1−x)Al3 phase in which higher cooling rates favour small x (low Ti-site occupancy by Ti atoms). SEM and EDX analysis reveal that virtually all the available Ti is contained within the TiAl3 phase, with negligible Ti dissolved in either the Ni2Al3 or NiAl3 phases.