Although titanium was discovered, it was never mined and used until 1910, when American chemist Hunter reduced titanium tetrachloride with sodium at 700-800 ℃, 99.9% metallic titanium was obtained for the first time, but the total was less than 1 gram. This method is called the "Hunter method". However, the reducing agent used in the Hunter process is expensive sodium and can only be used for the small amount preparation of titanium. Unable to meet mass production requirements. In 1932, American scientist Kroll from Luxembourg successfully reduced titanium tetrachloride using relatively inexpensive calcium at temperatures over 800 degrees Celsius, which began commercialization. A few years later, he replaced calcium with more easily preserved magnesium, a method that has been used to this day, known as the "Crowe method".
In 1948, DuPont Company in the United States discovered a new process for producing titanium by the magnesium reduction vacuum distillation method, marking the beginning of industrial production of titanium. This process is divided into three steps: the first step is to generate titanium tetrachloride TiO2+Cl2+2C=2CO+TiCl4 from carbon dioxide, the second step is to reduce titanium tetrachloride TiCl4+2Mg → Ti+2MgCl2 with metallic magnesium, and vacuum distillation is used to remove magnesium chloride and excess magnesium from sponge titanium, thereby obtaining pure titanium. The third step, coming out of the reactor, is a porous, spongy gray substance called sponge titanium.
Sponge titanium is melted into liquid in an electric furnace before being cast into titanium ingots. Due to the need for reactions to occur at high temperatures, it can be seen that titanium materials require a large amount of energy during the production process, which is why titanium materials are expensive.
Because the quality of titanium metal prepared by the Claus method is better and the production safety is higher. So, currently, various countries around the world use the magnesium reduction vacuum distillation method to produce sponge titanium. It is not difficult to find that it took over a hundred years from the discovery of titanium element to the production of pure titanium. And titanium has gradually entered people's daily lives, receiving increasing attention and wider use, and to some extent, it has been truly utilized.
