Electrochemical preparation of titanium and titanium–copper alloys with K 2 Ti 6 O 13 in KF–KCl melts

Abstract To investigate the electrodeposition mechanism of Ti 4+ , electrochemistry experiments were conducted using a KF–KCl–K 2 Ti 6 O 13 molten salt at a Cu electrode at 950 °C. Transient electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square‐wave voltammetry were used in this study. The main phases and compositions of the product were analyzed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy‐dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The resulting product has the structure of metallic Ti. The results indicate that Ti 4+ is reduced to metallic Ti by a two‐step mechanism, corresponding to the reduction pathway: Ti 4+ → Ti 2+ → Ti. Moreover, Cu–Ti alloy could be obtained by the potentiostatic electrolysis at a Cu electrode.