Calcium is a chemical element with a symbol of Ca and an atomic number of 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is very active and will form a black coating of nitride and oxide when exposed to the air.
Calcium metal or metallic calcium is a silver-white metal. It is mainly used as a deoxidizing, decarburizing, and desulfurizing agent in alloy steel and special steel production. It is also used as a reducing agent in high-purity rare earth metal processes.
Specification of calcium metal
| Ca | Cl | N | Mg | Cu | Ni | Mn | Si | Fe | Al |
| 98.5% min | 0.2% max | 0.1% max | 0.8% max | 0.02% max | 0.005% max | 0.03% max | 0.01% max | 0.01% max | 0.5% max |
Calcium metal for sale
We offer 98.5% Calcium metal as lump, granule, powder. As a leading supplier of ferroalloy materials, our supply ability of calcium metal is up to 3000 metric tons per month. The following table shows the product details. If you are looking for other grade metal calcium, contact the sales by leaving a message.
| product | Ca 98.5% |
| Formula | Ca |
| Shape | Lump, granule, powder |
| color | Silver-gray |
| Grade | Ca 98.5% |
| Size | 10-50mm, 10-100mm, 0-2mm, 0.1-1mm |
| Application | Casting, steelmaking |
| Standard | SGS, CIQ |
| MOQ | 25tons |
| Packaging | 1. In 1MT/bag 2. In 125kg-250kg steel drums 3. Special packing requirements can be negotiable |
| Place of origin | China |
Metallic calcium properties
The relative density is 1. 54. Melting point (839±2)°C. The boiling point is 1484°C. It is soluble in acid and liquid ammonia, slightly soluble in alcohol, and insoluble in benzene. The higher the purity, the slower the surface darkening in the air. When it encounters strong heat in the air, it burns to produce calcium oxide and calcium nitride. Above 400°C it reacts with hydrogen slowly to produce calcium hydride. The reaction with water at room temperature is relaxed, forming a protective film of calcium hydroxide, which reacts violently with water to release hydrogen when heated. The chemical properties are very active, strongly reducing, and easy to combine with halogen, sulfur, nitrogen, etc. Almost all metal oxides can be reduced when heated. Flammable.
| Name | Calcium （Calcium metal） |
| CAS | 7440-70-2 |
| EINECS | 231-179-5 |
| Formula | Ca |
| Molecular Weight | 40.078 |
| inchi | InChI=1/Ca |
| Melting point | 845℃ |
| properties | Silver white soft metal。 Melting point （839±2）℃ Boiling point 1484℃ Density 1.54 g/mL at 25 °C(lit.) Solubility: soluble in acid, liquid ammonia, slightly soluble in alcohol, insoluble in benzene. |
| application | It is widely used in metallurgy, chemical, pharmaceutical, electrical appliances, and other industries. It can be used as a deoxidizing and dephosphorizing agent in steel smelting, and it is an excellent reducing agent in non-ferrous smelting. |
| Dangerous mark | F – Flammable |
| Risk term | R15 – Contact with water releases extremely flammable gas |
| Safety term | S24/25 – Avoid contact with skin and eyes. S43C – In case of fire use limestone powder, sodium chloride, or dry sand (never use water). S8 – Keep the container dry. |
Application of calcium metal
The primary use of pure calcium metal is steelmaking because it has a strong chemical affinity for oxygen and sulfur. Once its oxides and sulfides are formed, liquid lime, aluminate, and sulfide inclusions will be produced in the steel, and these inclusions will surface. These inclusions are dispersed in the steel and become small and spherical during processing, improving pouring, cleanliness, and general mechanical properties.
- As reducing agents for various non-ferrous metals, refractory materials, and rare metal oxides, and other compounds.
- Alloying elements for the production of non-ferrous metal alloys,
- Deoxidizer that combines carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and nitrogen in the production of high-quality steel and non-ferrous metal alloys.
- Desulfurization and decarburization agent for iron and ferroalloys.
- Separating material for gaseous mixtures of nitrogen and argon
- Oil and gas purifiers in the oil and gas industry.
- Dehydrating agent: Calcium is a dehydrating agent for organic solvents.
- As a getter in the production of electron tubes.
- Calcium cored wire filler.
- Calcium metal can be used as raw material for the production of lead-calcium alloy in the battery industry.
Other applications:
Calcium is also widely used in medical science, and construction sector, etc.
Preparation method of metallic calcium
The preparation methods of calcium metal include the reduction method, electrolysis method, and calcium refining. Because metallic calcium is very active, it was mainly made by electrolytic molten calcium chloride or calcium hydroxide in the past. In recent years, the reduction method has gradually become the main method of producing metallic calcium.
Reduction method
Usually, limestone is used as raw material which is calcined into calcium oxide, and aluminum powder is used as a reducing agent. After crushing, it is mixed in proportion and pressed into a block, which reacts under vacuum and temperature to generate calcium vapor and calcium aluminate, which are reduced to crystalline calcium, and then calcium ingot is obtained by melting ingot.
Electrolysis method
The earliest electrolysis method uses the contact principle which is improved to liquid cathodic electrolysis later. The disadvantages of the contact method for producing calcium metal are the large consumption of raw material, the high solubility of metallic calcium in the electrolyte, low efficiency of electric current, low product quality, etc.
The liquid cathode method uses calcium-copper alloy (10%-15% calcium) as the liquid cathode and graphite electrode as the anode. The electrolytic calcium is deposited on the cathode. The shell of the electrolytic cell is made of cast iron. The electrolyte is a mixture of CaCl2 and KCL. Copper is chosen as the alloy composition of the liquid cathode because the copper-calcium phase diagram has a very wide range of low melting points in the high calcium content area, and calcium-copper alloys with 60%-65% calcium can be prepared at less than 700 degrees Celsius. . The copper-calcium alloy produced by electrolysis is vacuum distilled to obtain metallic calcium.
calcium refining
High-purity calcium can be obtained through the high-vacuum distillation process of industrial calcium. Generally, the distillation temperature is controlled at 780-820 degrees Celsius, and the vacuum degree is 1×10-4. Distillation treatment has a poor effect on purifying chloride in calcium. Nitrogen can be added to form a double salt when the temperature of the distillate is lower than that of the distillate. By adding nitride and purifying by vacuum distillation, the sum of impurity elements such as chlorine, manganese, copper, iron, silicon, aluminum, nickel, etc. in calcium can be reduced to 1000-100ppm, that is, 99.9%-99.99% of high-purity calcium can be obtained.