The Extraction and Uses of Titanium

Authors Avatar

Nathalie Smilovici                                   13/08/02

The Extraction and Uses of Titanium

Titanium is a very desirable engineering metal as it has a low density, high strength and high resistance to corrosion. However, small traces of carbon and other impurities can render the metal brittle. Titanium is therefore extracted from its chloride by reduction with an active metal. This is expensive but worthwhile as only very pure titanium is useful.  

Join now!

The main ore of titanium is called rutile and contains titanium IV oxide. Titanium is manufactured by a two stage batch process. Firstly rutile is converted to titanium IV chloride using chlorine and coke at around 900°C:

TiO2 + 2C + 2Cl2  TiCl4 + 2CO

The titanium IV chloride is a colourless liquid which fumes in moist air because of hydrolysis. It is purified from other chlorides such as those of iron, silicon and chromium by fractional distillation under an atmosphere of argon or nitrogen. The chloride is then reduced by a more reactive metal such as sodium or magnesium:

TiCl4 + 4Na  Ti ...

This is a preview of the whole essay