A STUDY ON PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF VANADIUM MASTER ALLOYS

The studies on preparation of V-Fe and V-Al master alloys by thermite process and their characterisation by Electron Probe Micro Analyser (E PMA) are presented. Alloy smelting campaign has been conducted in a sp ecially designed water cooled copper reactor under argon atmosphere. T he optimum charge composition has been established for the preparation of vanadium alloys of composition V-45Fe, V-20Fe, V-30Al and V-60Al. Master alloys have been analysed by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescen ce (EDXRF) and wet chemical methods to determine the average compositi on. The homogeneity of the alloys have been checked by optical microsc opy and EPMA. The V-Fe alloys have been found to be homogeneous and si ngle phase solid solution. The alloys of V-Al have been found to conta in solid solution along with fine dispersion. of V5Al8 phase. The find ings with respect to alloy yield and composition have been confirmed o n increasing the batch size by hundred fold.