Enhancement of the low temperature chlorination of ilmenite with CCl4 by adding Cl2

Abstract This work reports a simple and effective way to enhance the chlorination of natural ilmenite with carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) at low temperature by using chlorine gas (Cl 2 ). The phase transition of ilmenite during chlorination was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is found that CCl 4 and Cl 2 can act as the oxidant to convert ilmenite to M 5 O 9 and M 13 O 23 intermediate compounds which are members of a M 3 O 5 –M 2 O 4 intergrowth structure series, and then further chlorinate it to produce titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ). The solid phase transition from ilmenite to the intermediate phases was the rate controlling step. Cl 2 can significantly enhance this process by promoting the formation of the intermediate phases. The enhanced process can be commercially exploited as an environmental protection technology to produce TiCl 4 at low temperature.