Titanium-aluminium (Ti—Al) alloys and alloys based on titanium-aluminium (Ti—Al) inter-metallic compounds are very valuable materials. However, they can be difficult and expensive to prepare, particularly in the powder form. This expense of preparation limits wide use of these materials, even though they have highly desirable properties for use in aerospace, automotive and other industries.
Reactors and methods for forming titanium-aluminium based alloys have been disclosed. For example, WO 2007/109847 discloses a stepwise method for the production of titanium-aluminium compounds and titanium alloys and titanium-aluminium inter-metallic compounds and alloys.
WO 2007/109847 describes the production of titanium-aluminium based alloys via a two stage reduction process, based on reduction of titanium tetrachloride with aluminium. In stage 1, TiCl4 is reduced with Al in the presence of AlCl3 to produce titanium subchlorides according to the following reaction:TiCl4+(1.333+x)Al→TiCl3+(1+x)Al+0.333AlCl3 or  (1)TiCl4+(1.333+x)Al→TiCl2+(0.666+x)Al+0.666AlCl3  (1)
In stage 2, the products from reaction (1) are processed at temperatures between 200° C. and 1300° C. to produce a powder of titanium-aluminium based alloys, according to the following (simplified) reaction scheme:TiCl3+(1+x)Al→Ti—Al+AlCl3 or  (2)TiCl2+(0.666+x)Al→Ti—Alx+0.666AlCl3  (2)