Electrochemical preparation of titanium and titanium–copper alloys with K2Ti6O13 in KF–KCl melts

To investigate the electrodeposition mechanism of Ti4+, electrochemistry experiments were conducted using a KF–KCl–K2Ti6O13 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 Ti4+ is reduced to metallic Ti by a two-step mechanism, corresponding to the reduction pathway: Ti4+ → Ti2+ → Ti. Moreover, Cu–Ti alloy could be obtained by the potentiostatic electrolysis at a Cu electrode.