Harley A. Wilhelm

Tantalum Metal by Bomb Reduction of Ta2O5

A practicable approach to the preparation of massive, high purity, ductile tantalum metal by a bomb reduction process was demonstrated in a laboratory scale operation. In the process, tantalum pentoxide is reduced with aluminum in the presence of alloying agents. Certain combinations of iron, silicon, manganese and aluminum are used as alloying elements to lower the solidification temperature of the metal phase and, therefore, facilitate the slag-metal separation. Tantalum metal yields in the reduction step were consistently in excess of 83%. Subsequent removal of the alloying elements and impurities was accomplished by heating the regulus in vacuum. The purified tantalum was quite ductile and typically contained <10 ppm oxygen, <10 ppm nitrogen, ≈25 ppm carbon and <125 ppm of residual alloying elements.

Application of liquid-liquid extraction to the separation of tantalum from niobium

The use of liquid-liquid extraction for the separation of tantalum from niobium was demonstrated. Tantalum and niobium spectrographically free of each other were prepared in quantity on a continuous basis.