94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Inorganic Chemistry
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1525997
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Microwave Chemistry – Celebrating Work from The 5th Global Congress on Microwave Energy Applications View all articles
Microwave-Induced Plasma Reduction of Sc₂O₃ for Sustainable Al₃Sc Alloy Production: In Situ Analysis of Al₃Sc Formation Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted- 1 Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- 2 Furuya Metal, Ibaraki, Ōsaka, Japan
- 3 National Institute of Technology, Okinawa College, Nago, Okinawa, Japan
This study aimed to elucidate the reaction mechanism of the microwave irradiation method, a novel approach for synthesizing scandium (Sc) and aluminum (Al). Sc2O3 and Al mixed powders were exposed to Mg vapor or Mg plasma. In situ gas analysis and XRD analysis revealed that Al3Sc was formed as a result of Al pulling out Sc while Mg acted as an oxygen getter. In particular, Mg plasma was shown to directly reduce Sc2O3 and significantly increase Al3Sc formation due to its high-energy state. These findings highlight the crucial role of Al and Mg vapors in the synthesis of Sc-containing alloys and demonstrate that Mg plasma accelerates the reaction rate through a distinct mechanism compared to Mg vapor. This study's outcomes are expected to contribute to the development of environmentally friendly and efficient processes for producing Sc-containing aluminum alloys using Sc2O3, a material challenging to smelt by conventional methods.
Keywords: Microwave induced plasma, Reduction, Al3Sc, Gas analysis, sustainable alloy
Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 20 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fukushima, Okawa, Miyazawa, Takizawa and Fujii. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jun Fukushima, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.