The Discovery of Titanium

What is Titanium?
The symbol for the metal titanium in the Periodic Table is Ti, which is a direct abbreviation of the metal’s name. The metal was discovered in Great Britain—Cornwall to be exact—by a clergyman and mineralogist named William Gregor in 1791. However, Gregor did not actually get to name the element—at least not as it is commonly recognized today: that honor was taken by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist who had discovered uranium and zirconium two years prior and who would later go on to discover cerium in 1803. Klaproth discovered titanium independently of Gregor in 1793 and, unaware that it was the same substance identified by Gregor, named it titanium after the Greek gods the Titans, because in his view it was “the incarnation of natural strength” (“History of Titanium”). Gregory had named it “gregorite” two years before and needless to say Klaproth’s appellate is what stuck.
Regardless, titanium was not actually isolated for more than another century—in 1910. Titanium thus occurs naturally as part of chemical combinations. It is most often found in rutile and ilmenite, and it is actually the ninth most common element in the earth’s crust, where it makes up almost a quarter of the crust. As the 22nd element on the Periodic Table, it has a weight of 47.867amu and a low density of 4510 kg/m3, which is about 60% lower than the density of steel (“History of Titanium”). It is very corrosion-resistant with a high passivity and it is also nontoxic and thus is used in medical implants in humans.
Klaproth discovered his titanium source in a sample of rutile, which he had obtained from Boinik, and also from a sample of manaccanite, which is what Gregor discovered his in (Krebs). The reason it took so long to isolate titanium is because the process to do so is costly. The element can be isolated by heating with carbon, as is done in the process of iron smelting, because the element then binds with the carbon to create titanium carbide (Emsley). It was not until 1932 that William Kroll, the metallurgist famous for developing the Kroll method of isolating titanium for commercial purposes, showed that it could be extracted from ore by reducing titanium tetrachloride with calcium—and then later magnesium and sodium, which is the process still used mainly in the commercial isolation of titanium today (Krebs).
The Soviet Union during the Cold War era was the first to really use titanium commercially: it did so for the purposes of strengthening its military by using it in submarines. The U.S. Defense Department was not far behind: it realized that titanium had superior qualities. Thus, U.S. jets, including the hypersonic spy plane the SR-71, were also manufactured from titanium during the same era. Because titanium is so abundant in the earth’s crust, it has been produced in China, Russia, the U.S., India, Japan, and Ukraine. The biggest deposits of titanium can be found in Canada, China, India, Australia, South Africa, and Ukraine.
Today, titanium is used for a number of different products, including paint (white pigment mainly), paper, toothpaste and plastic (USGS: Titanium Statistics and Information). Titanium is also alloyed with other elements to create parts for use in aerospace engineering, military instruments, the automotive industry, dentistry (implants), sporting goods (such as golf clubs) and cellular phones. It is particularly useful in all these applications because of its low weight, low density, high strength properties. It is also used in the manufacturing of jewelry and gemstones in the fashion industry.
The U.S. produces about 32,000 tons of titanium annually. In terms of consumption of titanium, USGS reports that “the estimated value of titanium mineral concentrates imported in the United States in 2018 was $654 million” and that “about 90% of titanium mineral concentrates were consumed by domestic titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producers” while “the remaining 10% was used in welding-rod coatings and for manufacturing carbides, chemicals, and metal” (176). The price per metric ton currently is $4,800, with approximately 136,000 tons consumed in the U.S. last year alone.
The price of titanium soared from 2003 to 2007, from about $6,000 per metric ton to $17,000. When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the price of titanium fell back down to $8,000 per metric ton and has continued falling, hitting a low of $4,100 in 2016. It has risen since.
The future for this metal continues to look bright especially as it is so abundant in the earth and when used in alloys it can create strong but lightweight materials for bats, clubs, car parts and aerospace engineering. The cheap price of titanium today is relative to the number of producers around the world, which have brought competition to the marketplace. Because titanium can be found in roughly a quarter of the earth’s crust, there is no concern for its running out.
Additionally, military spending is increasing and in an effort to update military hardware, it is likely that titanium continues to be in demands in the coming years. However, there will always be a need for titanium in paint, as white pigment is the most common source of consumption in the U.S. when it comes to titanium. So long as the U.S. economy is growing, the need to paint will always be there.
Works Cited
Emsley, John. "Titanium". Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements.
Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
“History of Titanium.” Super Alloys, http://www.supraalloys.com/history.php
Krebs, Robert E. The History and Use of Our Earth's Chemical Elements: A Reference
Guide (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
USGS: Titanium Statistics and Information. National Minerals Information Center,
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/titanium-statistics-and-information