Titanium

Element Name: Titanium
Atomic Number: 22
Atomic Mass: 47.867
Atomic Symbol: Ti
Melting Point: 1668° C
Boiling Point: 3287° C

Titanium is a durable, high strength, silvery-white transition metal. It is ductile and malleable when heated, but unlike most metals is not a good conductor of heat or electricity. Titanium is also resistant to corrosion in weak acids and water. This is because the thin oxide layer that forms protects it from further attack. Titanium has 2 allotropes at standard pressure, and another one at high pressure. It also has 5 stable isotopes that occur in the earth’s crust. There are 11 radioisotopes that exist. It typically exists in the +4 state, but +2 and +3 also exist. Its name comes from the mythical Greek titans who were descendants of the goddess of earth.

Interesting Facts:

Titanium can still burn in a pure nitrogen environment. William Gregor discovered titanium in 1791 and gave it the name manaccanite. When Martin Klaproth found the same metal in 1795 he gave it its modern name “titanium”, which was preferred by scientists. Titanium’s resistance to corrosion makes it a good candidate for containers to holds nuclear waste. It is thought that this sort of titanium container could remain in use for 100,000 years. The use of titanium is relatively recent. It wasn’t until 1940 that an (rather inefficient) industrial process was made to isolate titanium, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that the U.S. and USSR started using it in the military.

Sources:

Titanium can be found in its native state in the earth’s crust, just not in substantial amounts. Most of the titanium used in industry is found in minerals. Rutile, ilmenite, anatase brookite perovskite and sphene are common ores containing titanium. Rutile and ilmenite represent the most significant source of titanium with 6.7 million tons being mined in 2011. In the same period around 186 thousand tons of titanium metal were made. It is the ninth most abundant element by weight in the earth’s crust, making up 0.63% of its mass. Samples of lunar rock also have a significant concentration of titanium – nearly 10% in certain clusters.

Industrial Uses:

95% of titanium is used as titanium dioxide. It is a bright white pigment which is used in paint, paper, toothpaste, and plastic coloring. Even more surprising is that this pigment is biocompatible and has a high index of refraction, allowing it to be used in sunscreen. Titanium’s application on humans extends even further than that; in orthopedics titanium is used in joint replacements. It has similar elasticity to bone, can integrate into the bone structure, and is not magnetic (meaning it can be safely put in MRIs) making it an almost-perfect choice. The more stereotypical use of titanium is in alloys. When alloyed with other metals titanium imparts strength, resistance to fracturing, and corrosion resistance at a relatively low weight. This makes it good in aerospace and nautical applications. It is not commonly used in consumer products because of its refinement costs, but many upscale and performance products use it.

References:

“Titanium.” Chemicool Periodic Table. Chemicool.com, 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 July
2016.
“Titanium.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 July 2016.
“Facts About Titanium.” Livescience. Livescience.com, 16 July. 2013. Web. 26 July 2016.
Gray, Theodore W., and Nick Mann. The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every
Known Atom in the Universe. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009. Print.