Main Applications of Titanium Metals

Titanium is a transition metal, which has been regarded as a rare metal for some time. Since the 1940s, titanium and its compounds have been widely used in aircraft, rockets, missiles, artificial satellites, spaceships, warships, military, medical and petrochemical industries. Titanium has the advantages of high melting point, high hardness, strong plasticity, low density and corrosion resistance. Titanium looks like steel and has silver gray light translation. The tensile strength of titanium alloy is 180 kg/mm3. Titanium is characterized by low density (4.51g/cm3), high hardness, high melting point (1675 C). High purity titanium has good plasticity, but becomes brittle and hard when impurities exist. Titanium does not react with chlorine, dilute sulfuric acid, dilute hydrochloric acid and nitric acid at room temperature, but can be eroded by hydrofluoric acid, phosphoric acid and molten alkali. Titanium is easy to dissolve in H2SO4, and its most prominent performance is its strong corrosion resistance to seawater. Titanium accounts for about 0.42% of the total weight in the crust, ranking seventh in the world of metals, with more than 70 minerals containing titanium. At present, the use of titanium has developed rapidly and has been widely used in aircraft, rockets, missiles, satellites, spaceships, warships, military, light industry, chemical industry, textiles, textiles, etc. Medical and petrochemical fields.


Titanium powder is a good fuel for rocket, and its corrosion resistance is 15 times stronger than that of stainless steel, and its service life is more than 10 times longer than that of stainless steel. The application of titanium in surgical operations is also fascinating. At present, surgical osteosynthesis is made of stainless steel. There is a disadvantage of using stainless steel. It is very painful to take out the stainless steel sheet after the healing of the osteosynthesis. Otherwise, stainless steel will be harmful to human body because of rusting. If the artificial bone made of titanium is replaced, the orthopaedic technology will be completely improved. Where the head is damaged, using titanium sheet and titanium screw, in a few months, the bone will grow again in the hole and screw of the titanium sheet. New muscle fibers will be wrapped in the titanium sheet. Titanium skeleton, like real bone, is connected with the flesh and plays a supporting and reinforcing role. Therefore, titanium is praised as “biophilic metal”. Now it has been used in knee joint, shoulder joint, rib joint, skull, active heart valve, bone fixation clamp and so on.


In steelmaking industry, a small amount of titanium is a good deoxidizer, nitrogen removal and sulfur removal agent. Titanium dioxide is a valuable white pigment called titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is one of the whitest substances in the world, and it is non-toxic. There are hundreds of thousands of tons of titanium dioxide used as pigments every year.


Because of its high melting point, titanium dioxide is often used to make refractory glass, glaze, enamel, pottery, high-temperature experimental utensils and so on.


Titanium tetrachloride emits a lot of white smoke in wet air. Because of its characteristics, it is often used as an artificial smoke agent in military. Especially in the ocean, there is a lot of water vapor. When titanium tetrachloride is released, the smoke is like a white Great Wall, blocking the enemy’s sight.


Barium titanate crystals are widely used in ultrasonic instruments and underwater detectors. This is because when a chopper is pressed to change its shape, it generates an electric current; once it is energized, it changes its shape. When barium titanate is placed in ultrasonic wave, it will generate current when it is pressed. The intensity of ultrasonic wave can be measured by the current generated by barium titanate. On the contrary, ultrasonic wave can be generated by high frequency current passing through it.


In gold decorative arts and crafts and daily necessities, they are not durable because of their low hardness, easy to puncture and wear. When a layer of titanium nitride is coated on the surface of these substances, the appearance is almost the same as that of gold, but more wear-resistant than gold and cemented carbide, which is known as “never wear”.


Organic titanium polymer can be used as surfactant, dispersant, water-resistant agent or rust-proof agent.


Titanium is one of the four series of hydrogen storage metals currently used by human beings, and it is also a cheaper one. But at present, human beings have not found a better “hydrogen storage metal”. Once this problem is solved, people can use hydrogen as fuel.


“Titanium aircraft” can reduce the body weight by 5 tons, carrying more than 100 passengers. In the new jet engine, titanium alloy has accounted for 18-25% of the total engine weight; in the latest supersonic aircraft, the use of titanium accounts for almost 95% of the total body structure weight, so it is difficult to develop the current supersonic aircraft without titanium alloy.


The submarine made of titanium is not only more durable than the steel submarine, but also can submerge deeper. The titanium submarine can submerge below 4500 meters, which is an insurmountable limit for the steel submarine. Warships and ships made of titanium do not need to be painted, nor do they rust after years of sailing in the sea. Because titanium is not a ferromagnetic material and will not be found by magnetic mines, this is particularly important in the military. Without the heat-resistant steel made of titanium, the life of rifles and machine guns currently used in conventional weapons can only be the initial 4.5 seconds.


With the strong absorption of titanium and zirconium to air, air can be removed and vacuum can be created. Vacuum pumps made of titanium-zirconium alloys can pump air to only one-billionth of what is left.


Titanium-niobium alloy is an ideal superconducting material. Using the principle of optical interference and ion titanium nitride treatment, Tsinghua University has produced a clear and hierarchical landscape ink painting.


Among the two most common stainless steels currently in use, chromium-nickel-titanium 18-8-1 (containing 18% chromium)