What was titanium used for

In Sherwin-Williams, a paint manufacturer, reported on the dangers of paint containing lead pigment. From that time paint manufacturers began moving away from lead pigments, and titanium pigment was the most viable replacement. Today, most of the white paint manufactured has titanium dioxide as its pigment. Titanium dioxide is pressed into the fibers of high-quality papers to improve their whiteness, brightness, and texture. It is added to skim milk to improve its whiteness and opacity.

It is added to toothpaste, rubber, plastics, cosmetics, sunscreen, and many food products for the same reason. These are materials used by almost every person on Earth almost every day. Few people realize the role that titanium plays within them. It can be used in foods, cosmetics and other products that people consume because it is inert. Titanium dioxide powder is also graded to specific particle sizes for use as a polishing compound.

It is used for polishing gemstones , metals and other materials. It is often less effective than other polishes but when it is effective can provide a cost savings. Most of the ilmenite mined today is from sands with a heavy mineral concentration.

Most of the world's titanium is produced by mining heavy mineral sands. These sands occur down-gradient from exposed masses of igneous rock such as gabbro , norite, and anorthosite.

These rocks contain titanium-bearing minerals such as ilmenite, anatase, brookite, leucoxene, perovskite, rutile, and sphene. When these rocks are broken down by weathering, the titanium minerals are among the most resistant. They are concentrated by weathering and transported downstream as grains of sand and silt. Eventually, they are deposited as sand along the coastline of a continent. This is where they are usually dredged or mined. Mining also occurs at inland locations where titanium minerals were deposited during periods of sea level higher than what we know today.

These heavy mineral sands might contain a few percent by weight of ilmenite and other titanium minerals. After the sand is mined, it goes to a processing plant that recovers titanium-bearing minerals. Other valuable minerals might be recovered at the same time. They are then processed or sold for the production of titanium metal or titanium dioxide.

The sand is then returned to the location where it was mined and the beach is reclaimed. Titanium in Stream Sediments and Soils: A map showing the abundance of titanium, in the form of titanium dioxide, in stream sediments and soils of part of the eastern United States.

The high strength to weight ratio of Titanium makes it ideal for use in a wide range of sporting equipment. Considering an average adult bike weighs 30 lbs. The number 1 consumer of Titanium for sporting goods is in manufacture of golf club heads. Titanium is also naturally resistant to corrosion and erosion — making it a great choice for safety equipment. When the 6, bolts that secured the daring climbing track in Ton Sai first started to erode, they were replaced with Stainless Steel.

However the Stainless Steel replacements only lasted 9 months, after which they had a corrosion problem that would break the bolt on a simple body weight charge.

Metallurgists discovered that the only metal the climbers could trust with their lives was Titanium. An average of 2, climbers use this track per week, and a group of keen climbers have started a charity to replace all the bolts with Titanium along the entire length of the route. Titanium Industries. The Most Fascinating Titanium Uses At Titanium Industries, we work with many manufacturers, engineers and designers that use Titanium in a wide variety of products and projects.

Titanium in medical devices. Titanium in Sporting Products The high strength to weight ratio of Titanium makes it ideal for use in a wide range of sporting equipment.

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Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Discovery date Discovered by William Gregor Origin of the name The name is derived from the Titans, the sons of the Earth goddess of Greek mythology.

Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table. Fact box. Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. Appearance The description of the element in its natural form.

Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties. Image explanation. The symbol is representative of the Titans of Greek mythology, after which the element is named. It is based on early votive offering figurines. 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.

They are also used in golf clubs, laptops, bicycles and crutches. Power plant condensers use titanium pipes because of their resistance to corrosion. Because titanium has excellent resistance to corrosion in seawater, it is used in desalination plants and to protect the hulls of ships, submarines and other structures exposed to seawater.

Titanium metal connects well with bone, so it has found surgical applications such as in joint replacements especially hip joints and tooth implants. The largest use of titanium is in the form of titanium IV oxide. It is a bright white pigment with excellent covering power. It is also a good reflector of infrared radiation and so is used in solar observatories where heat causes poor visibility. Titanium IV oxide is used in sunscreens because it prevents UV light from reaching the skin.

Nanoparticles of titanium IV oxide appear invisible when applied to the skin. Biological role. Titanium has no known biological role. It is non-toxic. Fine titanium dioxide dust is a suspected carcinogen. Natural abundance. Titanium is the ninth most abundant element on Earth. It is almost always present in igneous rocks and the sediments derived from them. It occurs in the minerals ilmenite, rutile and sphene and is present in titanates and many iron ores. Titanium is produced commercially by reducing titanium IV chloride with magnesium.

Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History. The first titanium mineral, a black sand called menachanite, was discovered in in Cornwall by the Reverend William Gregor.

He analysed it and deduced it was made up of the oxides of iron and an unknown metal, and reported it as such to the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. This is a form of rutile TiO 2 and Klaproth realised it was the oxide of a previously unknown element which he named titanium. It was not until that M. Hunter, working for General Electric in the USA, made pure titanium metal by heating titanium tetrachloride and sodium metal.

Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves.

Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Supply risk. Relative supply risk 4. Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance.

Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate.

Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Titanium Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. This week, you may be surprised to learn just how reliant you are on this widely used element that cleans and protects our environment. It is notoriously hard to make, but we have come to rely on it and indeed we couldn't do without this element or its compounds today.

So, why is it so important? We actually use 4 million tons of TiO2 each year, a lot of it for paint and other applications that need something that is bright white, insoluble and not toxic, like medicines and toothpaste.

In the food industry it is additive number E, used to whiten things like confectionary, cheeses, icings and toppings. It is also used in sunscreens, since it is a very opaque white and also very good at absorbing UV light. The ability to absorb UV light helps the TiO2 to act as a photocatalyst. This means that when UV light falls upon it, it generates free electrons that react with molecules on the surface, forming very reactive organic free radicals.