Tantalum alloy is an alloy composed of tantalum as the base and other elements. The anodic oxide film of tantalum is very stable, corrosion-resistant, and has excellent dielectric properties, making it suitable for the manufacture of electrolytic capacitors. Tantalum has strong resistance to chemical corrosion. It can resist the corrosion of all organic and inorganic acids except hydrogen fluoride, sulfur trioxide, hydrofluoric acid, hot concentrated sulfuric acid and alkali, so it can be used as a corrosion-resistant material in the chemical industry and medicine. Tantalum carbide is an important additive for the manufacture of cemented carbide. In addition, tantalum is also used in some electronic tubes.

PRODUCT USE

Tantalum and its alloy billets can be produced by powder metallurgy or smelting. Powder metallurgy is mostly used to produce small tantalum products and billets for processing.

Vacuum consumable arc and electron beam melting processes are common methods for producing tantalum and its alloy ingots. The electron beam melting process is mainly used for the purification of tantalum. The consumable arc melting process can produce ingots with large diameter and more uniform alloy composition. The electrodes for consumable arc melting can be made of sintered rods or electron beam melting ingots. The ingots obtained by the melting method have coarse grains, and it is often necessary to break the cast grains to improve plasticity.

Tantalum can be used to make various ductile alloys with high melting points. These alloys can be used as materials for superhard metal processing tools and for making high-temperature alloys for jet engines, chemical experimental equipment, nuclear reactors and missiles. Tantalum has high ductility and can be stretched into wires. These tantalum wires are used to gasify various metals, such as aluminum. Tantalum can resist erosion by biological fluids and does not irritate tissues, so it is widely used to make surgical tools and implants. For example, tantalum can directly bond with hard tissues, so many bone implants have porous tantalum coatings.

Tantalum can resist corrosion from almost all acids except hydrofluoric acid and hot sulfuric acid. Therefore, tantalum can be used as a material for chemical reaction containers and corrosive liquid conduits. The heat exchange coils used in the hydrochloric acid heating process are made of tantalum. Tantalum is used in large quantities in the production of UHF radio transmitter tubes, which capture oxygen and nitrogen in the tubes to form oxides and nitrides, respectively, thereby maintaining the required high vacuum state.