Carbothermic reaction

Carbothermic reactions are chemical reactions involving reduction of substances, often metal oxides (O2-), using carbon (C) as the reducing agent. Depending on the starting material, the process is usually carried out in an electric arc furnace or reverberatory furnace at temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. Carbothermal reactions produce carbon monoxide (CO) and sometimes carbon dioxide (CO2). The facility of these conversions is attributable to the entropy of reaction: two solid compounds—the (metal) oxide (and flux) and carbon—are converted to a new solid (metal) compound and a gas (COx), the latter having high entropy.

Carbothermic reactions are used in the production of the elemental forms of many elements. The ability of metals to participate in carbothermic reactions can be predicted from Ellingham diagrams.

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