Production of tantalum by aluminothermic reduction in plasma reactor

Tantalum is a very interesting metal for industry due to some properties such as high melting point, ductility, high corrosion resistance, besides attractive electric and thermal conductivities. In the present work, the production of metallic tantalum (Ta) has been investigated through the reduction of Ta2O5 by aluminothermic reduction technique (ATR), using hydrogen plasma to trigger the exothermal reaction. Ta2O5 and Al mixtures were previously processed by mechanical alloying during 2, 6 and 10 h. The results obtained by XRD and SEM show that is possible to obtain a compound rich in tantalum through the technique of aluminothermic reduction by plasma.