Cabot Corporation

E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Cabot Performance Material

Charles E Mosheim

Vinci Martinez Felix

Prabhat Kumar

Norman A Carlson

Roger M Bergman

A process is disclosed for converting a spent catalyst from conventional fluorination processes into a commercially useful tantalum or niobium salt such as K.sub.2 TaF.sub.7 or K.sub.2 NbF.sub.7. The process broadly relates to dissolving the spent catalyst in water or an aqueous hydrofluoric acid solution, separating and disposing the undissolved residue, extracting the aqueous solution with a suitable solvent such as methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), and obtaining useful tantalum products from the MIBK solution such as a tantalum salt.

Recovery of spent catalyst

A wrought metal alloy product having a tantalum or niobium base metal, 10 to 1000 ppm silicon, and 10 to 10000 ppm yttrium nitride. Fine uniform grain size contributes to improved ductility.

Tantalum base alloys

A reduction process for producing tantalum powder wherein a tantalum compound is introduced, in a continuous or incremental manner, to a reactor, during the course of the reduction reaction.

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Zionsville, PA, United States of America

Charles E Mosheim