Titanium ( ) is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It is a light, strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant (including to sea water and chlorine) transition metal with a grayish color. Titanium can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, molybdenum, among other elements, to produce strong lightweight alloys for aerospace (jet engines, missiles, and spacecraft), military, industrial process (chemicals and petro-chemicals, desalination plants, pulp, and paper), automotive, agri-food, medical prostheses, orthopaedic implants, dental endodontic instruments and files, dental implants, sporting goods, jewelry, mobile phones, and other applications.

Titanium was discovered in England by William Gregor in 1791 and named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth for the Titans of Greek mythology.

The element occurs within a number of mineral deposits, principally rutile and ilmenite, which are widely distributed in the Earth's crust and lithosphere, and it is found in almost all living things, rocks, water bodies, and soils. The metal is extracted from its principal mineral ores via the Kroll process or the Hunter process. Its most common compound, titanium dioxide, is used in the manufacture of white pigments. Other compounds include titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) (used in smoke screens/skywriting and as a catalyst) and titanium trichloride (TiCl₃) (used as a catalyst in the production of polypropylene).

The two most useful properties of the metal form are corrosion resistance, and the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal. In its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but 45% lighter.

History

Titanium was discovered included in a mineral in Cornwall, England, in 1791 by amateur geologist and pastor William Gregor, the then vicar of Creed parish. He recognized the presence of a new element in ilmenite when he found black sand by a stream in the nearby parish of Manaccan and noticed the sand was attracted by a magnet. Analysis of the sand determined the presence of two metal oxides; iron oxide (explaining the attraction to the magnet) and 45.25% of a white metallic oxide he could not identify.

The processes required to extract titanium from its various ores are laborious and costly; it is not possible to reduce in the normal manner, by heating in the presence of carbon, because that produces titanium carbide. Pure metallic titanium (99.9%) was first prepared in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter by heating TiCl₄ with sodium in a steel bomb at 700–800 °C in the Hunter process. Titanium metal was not used outside the laboratory until 1946 when William Justin Kroll proved that it could be commercially produced by reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium in what came to be known as the Kroll process. Although research continues into more efficient and cheaper processes (e.g., FFC Cambridge), the Kroll process is still used for commercial production.