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- Titanium is a familiar metal. Many people know that it is used in jewelry, prosthetics, tennis rackets, goalie masks, scissors, bicycle frames, surgical tools, mobile phones and other high-performance products. Titanium is as strong as steel but weights about half as much. It is twice as strong as aluminum but only about 60% heavier.
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Titanium is used in steel as an alloying element (ferro-titanium) to reduce grain size and as a deoxidizer, and in stainless steel to reduce carbon content. Titanium is often alloyed with aluminium (to refine grain size), vanadium, copper (to harden), iron, manganese, molybdenum, and other metals.
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What are the uses of titanium?
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- Overview
- Occurrence, properties, and uses
A compound of titanium and oxygen was discovered in 1791 by the English chemist and mineralogist William Gregor. It was independently rediscovered in 1795 and named by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth.
What is the atomic number of titanium?
The atomic number of titanium is 22.
How is titanium obtained?
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.
What are the uses of titanium?
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 (1910) 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 1950, 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 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.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Uses. Titanium is as strong as steel but much less dense. It is therefore important as an alloying agent with many metals including aluminium, molybdenum and iron. These alloys are mainly used in aircraft, spacecraft and missiles because of their low density and ability to withstand extremes of temperature.
Jun 19, 2022 · Uses. Perhaps the best-known use of titanium is in the compound titanium dioxide (TiO 2 also known as titanium white), which is one of the whitest substances known.
Jun 6, 2024 · Titanium is sometimes referred to as the “Wonder Metal” or the “aerospace metal” because of its numerous desirable properties for aerospace applications. Titanium’s low density, ductility, tensile strength, and corrosion resistance all contribute to its nicknames.
The most common use of titanium is as a whitening, brightening and opacifying agent. High-quality white paints usually contain significant amounts of titanium dioxide, which has a pigment name of "titanium white." Titanium dioxide increases the paint's whiteness and reflectivity.
Titanium is widely used in making esteem quality steel alloys. It is also used in making of other alloys such as, copper, vanadium and aluminum. Titanium products are widely used in various aerospace, and industrial markets.
