Investigation of mechanochemical reduction of CrO3-V2O5-Mg-C composite system

Abstract In this research, the effects of different parameters such as milling time, leaching, and amounts of magnesium and carbon on the reactions in the CrO3-V2O5-Mg-C powder system were studied during mechanochemical process. The synthesized powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), elemental map (X-Map) and transmittance electron microscopy (TEM). Calculation of the adiabatic reaction temperature (Tad = 4259 K) indicates that the reaction is self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). Based on the X-ray diffraction pattern obtained after 3 minutes of milling, the raw materials reacted together and magnesium oxide, vanadium carbide, chromium carbide and magnesium chromate were produced. The leaching process by hydrochloric acid (HCl) led to the removal of the MgO phase. Increasing the amount of magnesium resulted in the removal of magnesium chromate phase. The addition of carbon led to an increase in the peak intensity of the carbide phases.