Titanium's high strength, low density, and excellent corrosion resistance makes it useful in aircraft, spacecraft, ships, and other high-stress applications. It also is used in prosthetic devices, because it does not react with fleshy tissue and bone.
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Titanium is obtained by the Kroll process. It cannot be obtained by the common method of reducing the oxide with carbon because a very stable carbide is readily produced, and, moreover, the metal is quite reactive toward oxygen and nitrogen at elevated temperatures.
A compound of titanium and oxygen was discovered in by the English chemist and mineralogist William Gregor. It was independently rediscovered in and named by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth .
titanium (Ti) , chemical element , a silvery gray metal of Group 4 (IVb) of the periodic table . Titanium is a lightweight, high-strength, low-corrosion structural metal and is used in alloy form for parts in high-speed aircraft. A compound of titanium and oxygen was discovered () by the English chemist and mineralogist William Gregor and independently rediscovered () and named by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth .
Titanium is widely distributed and constitutes 0.44 percent of Earth&#;s crust. The metal is found combined in practically all rocks, sand, clay, and other soils. It is also present in plants and animals, natural waters and deep-sea dredgings, and meteorites and stars. The two prime commercial minerals are ilmenite and rutile. The metal was isolated in pure form () by the metallurgist Matthew A. Hunter by reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with sodium in an airtight steel cylinder.
The preparation of pure titanium is difficult because of its reactivity. Titanium cannot be obtained by the common method of reducing the oxide with carbon because a very stable carbide is readily produced, and, moreover, the metal is quite reactive toward oxygen and nitrogen at elevated temperatures. Therefore, special processes have been devised that, after , changed titanium from a laboratory curiosity to an important commercially produced structural metal. In the Kroll process, one of the ores, such as ilmenite (FeTiO3) or rutile (TiO2), is treated at red heat with carbon and chlorine to yield titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, which is fractionally distilled to eliminate impurities such as ferric chloride, FeCl3. The TiCl4 is then reduced with molten magnesium at about 800 °C (1,500 °F) in an atmosphere of argon, and metallic titanium is produced as a spongy mass from which the excess of magnesium and magnesium chloride can be removed by volatilization at about 1,000 °C (1,800 °F). The sponge may then be fused in an atmosphere of argon or helium in an electric arc and be cast into ingots. On the laboratory scale, extremely pure titanium can be made by vaporizing the tetraiodide, TiI4, in very pure form and decomposing it on a hot wire in vacuum. (For treatment of the mining, recovery, and refining of titanium, see titanium processing. For comparative statistical data on titanium production, see mining.)
Pure titanium is ductile, about half as dense as iron and less than twice as dense as aluminum; it can be polished to a high lustre. The metal has a very low electrical and thermal conductivity and is paramagnetic (weakly attracted to a magnet). Two crystal structures exist: below 883 °C (1,621 °F), hexagonal close-packed (alpha); above 883 °C, body-centred cubic (beta). Natural titanium consists of five stable isotopes: titanium-46 (8.0 percent), titanium-47 (7.3 percent), titanium-48 (73.8 percent), titanium-49 (5.5 percent), and titanium-50 (5.4 percent).
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titanium fan bladesTitanium wide-chord fan blades on a Safran engine display.
Titanium is important as an alloying agent with most metals and some nonmetals. Some of these alloys have much higher tensile strengths than does titanium itself. Titanium has excellent corrosion-resistance in many environments because of the formation of a passive oxide surface film. No noticeable corrosion of the metal occurs despite exposure to seawater for more than three years. Titanium resembles other transition metals such as iron and nickel in being hard and refractory. Its combination of high strength, low density (it is quite light in comparison to other metals of similar mechanical and thermal properties), and excellent corrosion-resistance make it useful for many parts of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and ships. It also is used in prosthetic devices, because it does not react with fleshy tissue and bone. Titanium has also been utilized as a deoxidizer in steel and as an alloying addition in many steels to reduce grain size, in stainless steel to reduce carbon content, in aluminum to refine grain size, and in copper to produce hardening.
Although at room temperatures titanium is resistant to tarnishing, at elevated temperatures it reacts with oxygen in the air. This is no detriment to the properties of titanium during forging or fabrication of its alloys; the oxide scale is removed after fabrication. In the liquid state, however, titanium is very reactive and reduces all known refractories.
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Titanium is not attacked by mineral acids at room temperature or by hot aqueous alkali; it dissolves in hot hydrochloric acid, giving titanium species in the +3 oxidation state, and hot nitric acid converts it into a hydrous oxide that is rather insoluble in acid or base. The best solvents for the metal are hydrofluoric acid or other acids to which fluoride ions have been added; such mediums dissolve titanium and hold it in solution because of the formation of fluoro complexes.
Titanium is light, strong and resistant to corrosion and is the metal of the future. Explore its past in this timeline.
William Gregor, Vicar of Creed Parish in Cornwall and amateur geologist, examines magnetic sand from a local river. After removing the magnetic iron oxide and treating the residue with hydrochloric acid, he is left with an impure white oxide of a new element.
Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a chemist working in Germany, independently isolates a white oxide from a Hungarian mineral known as rutile. He gives the name titanium to the new metal element.
Matthew Hunter, an American chemist, isolates the metal from its oxide.
Titanium dioxide becomes available as a commercial product and is used as a white pigment in paints.
Wilhelm Justin Kroll, from Luxembourg, produces significant quantities of titanium by combining titanium tetrachloride with calcium.
Kroll moves to America and modifies his process to meet commercial standards. Today, titanium is produced by the &#;Kroll Process&#;.
The DuPont Company is the first to produce titanium commercially.
Russia uses titanium alloys in military and submarine applications, while America uses titanium alloys for engine parts and fuselage/wing coverings in high-performance military aircraft.
The first hip replacement operation using titanium alloy implants. Titanium alloys are biocompatible, corrosion-resistant, able to carry mechanical loads and are lightweight.
First artificial heart transplant operation. The metallic parts are made of titanium.
Airbus A380, capable of carrying 550 passengers, weighs in at 280 tonnes &#; 145 tonnes of this is the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V.
Find out more, in this video on titanium&#;s special properties.
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