Abstract
Aluminium has been considered as an alternative for copper conductor applications. Metal impurities in particular Ti, Zr, V and Cr in the solution affect the electrical conductivity of aluminium significantly. Industrially boron treatment has been used to remove these impurities through the formation of borides. However solution thermodynamics and reaction mechanics of the borides formation in an aluminium melt are not well understood. In the present study, thermodynamic analysis has been carried out to investigate and elaborate the formation of various borides in aluminium melt. It has been shown in this study that diborides (MB2) were the most thermodynamically stable boride compounds of these impurities in the given working conditions. The ZrB2, TiB2 and VB2 particles were more stable compared to AlB2 and CrB2 hence did not dissolve readily. It is also shown that the relative stability of boride particles has been affected by the presence of other metal diborides.