Description
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Titanium is one of the transition metals that has a metallic silvery in its natural solid state; this element is most well known for its anti-corrosive properties. Titanium has an atomic weight of 47.867, a melting point of 3034 °F, and a boiling point of 5949 °F. Some common uses of titanium include: as a component in lightweight metallic alloys for use in aircraft, cars, and bicycles, and as a component in parts of ships exposed to salt water.
Isolation
Titanium is not found free in nature but is a component of minerals such as rutile and ilmentite. The Kroll process is used to isolate titanium from these minerals.
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The Kroll process is the main method that is used to isolate titanium on a large scale for industrial purposes. During this process, the ores rutile or ilmenite are reduced by heating them with coke that has been derived from petroleum sources; this reaction takes place in a fluid bed reactor at a temperature of 1832 °F. The next step involves treating the resulting liquid compound to produce titanium tetrachloride in addition to other chloride compounds; the titanium tetrachloride is separated out through fractional distillation. After this step, titanium chloride is reduced by reacting it with liquid magnesium in a stainless steel container at a temperature of approximately 1562 °F.
While pure titanium is isolated from this process, there is a problem with titanium being reduced to its lower chloride form. Magnesium and magnesium dichloride that present problems with reduction are taken out through reactions with water and hydrochloric acid; the resulting titanium sponge has to undergo repeated additional melting and crushing processes to be completely isolated.