Niobium (Nb): Superconductor and High-Temperature Alloy Production for Aerospace

Chemical formula: Nb, atomic number: 41, Group VB in periodic table, valence states: +2, +3, +4, +5; has no stable isotopes. Niobium has 49 isotopes ranging from Nb-81 to Nb-113. Except for Nb-93 which is stable and constitutes all naturally occurring niobium in Earth's crust, all are radioactive and artificially produced. Niobium is a soft gray-silver metal resembling freshly cut steel. It is typically found in minerals along with other related metals. Due to a thin niobium oxide coating, it doesn't discolor or oxidize in air at room temperature. However, it oxidizes readily at high temperatures (above 200°C), especially by oxygen and halogens (Group 17). When alloyed with tin and aluminum, niobium becomes superconducting at 9.25 Kelvin.

Applications

1. For manufacturing high-temperature alloys and superconducting alloys.
2. For producing coating materials or sputtering targets.

Product Series

Health and Safety Information

Packaging Specifications

• Standard packaging: 50 kg/drum, 500 kg/pallet, ton bags
• Sample packaging: 500 g/bag, 1 kg/bottle

About Niobium

There are several methods for extracting and refining niobium from ores. The chosen method depends on the ore's nature and the metal's intended end use. Common steps in these recovery processes include ore preconcentration, crushing or opening the ore, obtaining pure niobium compounds, reducing niobium compounds to metallic niobium, purifying or refining the metal, and manufacturing. When extracting niobium from niobium-tantalum ores, the most crucial step is separating niobium from tantalum, as they are chemically very similar.

Ferroniobium can be produced from pyrochlore using thermal reduction in refractory-lined steel or preferably electric furnace reactors via batch processing. Aluminum powder serves as the reducing agent. Opening the ore is a key step in niobium recovery, and separating niobium from tantalum and impurity metals is the most important step in extracting niobium from ores. This can be achieved through several methods including solvent extraction, ion exchange, fractional crystallization, fractional sublimation and other techniques.

High-purity grades of the metal can be produced by reducing niobium pentoxide (Nb₂O₅) or niobium pentachloride (NbCl₅) at high temperatures between 1400 to 2000°C, typically under vacuum, using various reducing agents such as carbon, hydrogen, sodium and others:
Nb₂O₅ + 7C → 2NbC + 5CO
Nb₂O₅ + 5NbC → 7Nb + 5CO₂
NbCl₅ + 5H₂ → 2Nb + 10HCl
NbCl₅ + 5Na → Nb + 5NaCl