Organic reagent is considered as one of the most promising reductants for deeply removing vanadium (V) trichloride oxide ( VOCl3) from crude titanium tetrachloride ( TiCl4). Nevertheless, indeterminate active component and unclearly removal mechanisms appear to be the obstacles to separate VOCl3 from TiCl4 using organic reagent. Herein we conduct the experiment to explore it. Firstly, the organic reagents are obtained from enterprise (noted as EOR1– EOR7), and then it is determined that carbon aromatic ( CA) is the active component for removing VOCl3. Furthermore, modified organic reagents (noted as MOR1– MOR4) are prepared via adding aromatic hydrocarbon oil and stearic acid to EOR7, then indicating that MOR3 is endowed with the best capacity to remove VOCl3. In addition, the residues obtained from distillation experiment are comprehensively analyzed (using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) etc.), revealing that porous amorphous carbon that deriving from MOR, plays an excellent role in removing VOCl3 from TiCl4 system. Therefore, the removal mechanisms can be explained like that porous amorphous carbon reduces VOCl3 into insoluble vanadium (III) chloride ( VCl3) and vanadium (IV) oxide dichloride ( VOCl2), and then they are separated via adsorption process, with the help of porous amorphous carbon.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experimental and methods
        2.1 Materials
        2.2 Experiments on EOR or MOR and TiCl4
        2.3 Determining the key component
        2.4 Preparing MOR
        2.5 Characterization
    3 Results and discussion
        3.1 Characterizations of carbon residues
        3.2 The reason for CA being key component
        3.3 Optimal experimental conditions
        3.4 Characterizations of vanadium carbon residue
        3.5 Process and mechanisms
    4 Conclusion
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Shuyi Yang(Liaoning Key Laboratory for Surface Functionalization of Titanium Dioxide Powder, College of Chemistry and Material Engineering, Bohai University)
• Zhenqiang Xing(Liaoning Key Laboratory for Surface Functionalization of Titanium Dioxide Powder, College of Chemistry and Material Engineering, Bohai University)
• Tao E(Liaoning Key Laboratory for Surface Functionalization of Titanium Dioxide Powder, College of Chemistry and Material Engineering, Bohai University, Institute of Ocean Research, Bohai University)
• Lin Liu(Liaoning Key Laboratory for Surface Functionalization of Titanium Dioxide Powder, College of Chemistry and Material Engineering, Bohai University)
• Jianhua Qian(Liaoning Shihua University College of Chemistry and Materials Science)