China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The issues of high energy consumption and high pollution in the aluminum electrolysis industry have become a major focus for the international aluminum community. Research suggests that a new electrolysis system, composed of inert anodes coupled with wettable cathodes, holds the potential to fundamentally improve the existing aluminum production process, thereby achieving the goals of energy saving and environmental protection. This study aims to enhance the physical properties of inert and wettable TiB₂-C composite cathodes for aluminum electrolysis. By modifying coal tar pitch binder with organic resins, we investigated the effects of different modified pitches on the properties of TiB₂-C composite cathode materials. The results indicated that as the resin addition amount increased from 0% to 4%, 8%, 12%, and 16%, the incorporation of furan and epoxy resins significantly improved the bulk density, open porosity, electrical resistivity, and compressive strength of the TiB₂-C composites, whereas phenolic resin showed little effect. The optimal improvement was achieved at a 12% addition of both furan and epoxy resins. For the composite prepared with furan-modified pitch, the improvements in the aforementioned physical properties were 1.6%, 2.7%, 20.4%, and 42%, respectively. Corresponding improvements for the epoxy-modified pitch composite were 0.8%, 1%, 14%, and 39.6%, respectively. SEM analysis revealed that the furan-and epoxy-modified pitches exhibited better bonding with TiB₂ particles compared to the unmodified pitch, with the furan-modified pitch providing the most complete coating. The electrolytic corrosion rate of the composite prepared with unmodified pitch was 8.07mm/a. In contrast, the composites prepared with furan-and epoxy-modified pitches showed lower corrosion rates of 4.42mm/a and 4.13mm/a, respectively, demonstrating that the modification process enhances the corrosion resistance of the TiB₂-C composite cathode materials.