TY - JOUR
T1 - Spheroidization of tantalum powder by radio frequency inductively coupled plasma processing
AU - Qin, Qian
AU - Yang, Fang
AU - Shi, Tao
AU - Guo, Zhimeng
AU - Sun, Haixia
AU - Li, Pei
AU - Lu, Xin
AU - Chen, Cunguang
AU - Hao, Junjie
AU - Cao, Peng
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-TP-17-032A1), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFB1101201) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M641188).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-TP-17-032A1 ), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFB1101201 ) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M641188 ).
PY - 2019/8
Y1 - 2019/8
N2 - In this work, we used radio frequency (RF) plasma spheroidization to transform irregularly shaped tantalum powders to spherical ones. After RF plasma treatment, the majority of particles were spheroidized with the presence of a small number of irregular particles. The mean particle size becomes finer and the particle size distribution narrower, as compared with the starting powder. A few non-spherical or even irregular tantalum powders still existed. Although argon gas was used in the plasma chamber, oxygen contamination still occurred. A thin layer of oxide film was found on the surface of particles, while the particle interiors were inferred free of oxygen. The powder characteristics had been significantly improved. After spheroidization treatment, the apparent density, tap density and powder flowability significantly increased from 7.03 g/cm3 to 8.9 g/cm3, 8.6 g/cm3 to 10.05 g/cm3, and 12.41 s/(50 g) to 7.96 s/(50 g), respectively, in comparison with that of raw powders. This study presents a feasible method for fabricating spherical tantalum powders, which may potentially broaden the application for metal additive manufacturing.
AB - In this work, we used radio frequency (RF) plasma spheroidization to transform irregularly shaped tantalum powders to spherical ones. After RF plasma treatment, the majority of particles were spheroidized with the presence of a small number of irregular particles. The mean particle size becomes finer and the particle size distribution narrower, as compared with the starting powder. A few non-spherical or even irregular tantalum powders still existed. Although argon gas was used in the plasma chamber, oxygen contamination still occurred. A thin layer of oxide film was found on the surface of particles, while the particle interiors were inferred free of oxygen. The powder characteristics had been significantly improved. After spheroidization treatment, the apparent density, tap density and powder flowability significantly increased from 7.03 g/cm3 to 8.9 g/cm3, 8.6 g/cm3 to 10.05 g/cm3, and 12.41 s/(50 g) to 7.96 s/(50 g), respectively, in comparison with that of raw powders. This study presents a feasible method for fabricating spherical tantalum powders, which may potentially broaden the application for metal additive manufacturing.
KW - RF plasma processing
KW - Spheroidization
KW - Surface morphology
KW - Tantalum powder
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apt.2019.05.022
DO - 10.1016/j.apt.2019.05.022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066997589
VL - 30
SP - 1709
EP - 1714
JO - Advanced Powder Technology
JF - Advanced Powder Technology
SN - 0921-8831
IS - 8
ER -