When Titanium Was Discovered

Discovery of Titanium

In 1791, Reverend William Gregor discovered minerals containing titanium in Cornwall, England. Reverend William Gregor was an English amateur mineralogist. He collected black sand near a small stream in the parish of Manaccan. He observed that the sand was attracted by a magnet. Analysis showed that the sand contained two metal oxides: iron oxide and a white metal oxide that remained unidentified. At the same time, Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein produced a similar material that did not gain recognition.

In 1795, the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth analysed red rutil produced in Hungary. He endorsed the naming method used for uranium and designated the new element as "Titan". When he became aware of Gregor’s earlier discovery, he obtained samples of the Manaccan minerals and confirmed the presence of titanium.

The titanium discovered by Gregor and Crabbe was in the form of powdered titanium oxide rather than metallic titanium. Titanium oxide is stable, and titanium metal bonds directly with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon. Consequently, producing metallic titanium is challenging. In 1910, the American chemist Matthew A. Hunter produced TiCI with a purity of 99.9% by reduction with sodium.

In 1940, the Luxembourgish scientist W.J. Kroll produced pure titanium by reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with magnesium. Since then, magnesium reduction and sodium reduction have become the industrial methods for producing titanium sponge. In 1948, the United States produced 2 tonnes of titanium sponge using the magnesium reduction method, thereby initiating industrial titanium production.

Development Process of the Titanium Industry

Scientists discovered the element titanium in 1789. However, it was not until 1908 that Norway and the United States produced titanium dioxide using the sulphuric acid process. In 1910, sodium was first extracted from titanium sponge in a laboratory setting. In 1948, the American company DuPont Co. produced tonnes of titanium sponge using the magnesium reduction method. This event marked the beginning of industrial production of titanium sponge-based titanium.

Production of Titanium

Melting of Titanium

Melting the titanium raw material and adding additional materials, followed by titanium processing and densification of titanium alloys, is the first step in preparing titanium materials.

General titanium materials are produced using two self-consuming melting processes. Certain titanium alloys for applications in aerospace require melting three times.

Melting Process for Titanium Sponge

Magnesium Reduction Process

The process to produce titanium involves reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with magnesium. The reduction is conducted at high temperatures under an inert gas atmosphere. Remaining metallic magnesium and MgCl2 are removed by vacuum distillation to obtain titanium sponge.

Sodium (Na) Reduction Process

This method is also known as the Hunter method and represents the earliest approach to producing titanium metal.