All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 22, a transition metal
As strong as many steels at about half the weight, and so friendly to the body that bone grows right onto it.
Period 4, group 4. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Like other transition metals, titanium loses its outer s electrons, and often some d electrons as well, to form positive ions, and it can form more than one kind.
The ninth most abundant element in the crust, in the minerals ilmenite (FeTiO₃) and rutile (TiO₂) found in beach sands and igneous rock. Australia, South Africa and China mine the most.
William Gregor, a clergyman in Cornwall, found an unknown metal in black sand in 1791. Martin Heinrich Klaproth found it again in rutile in 1795 and named it after the Titans of Greek myth. Pure titanium metal was not made until 1910, and the Kroll process that produces it commercially came in the 1940s.
About 95% of titanium ore becomes titanium dioxide, the brilliant white pigment in paint, paper, plastics, toothpaste and sunscreen. The metal goes into jet engines and airframes, hip and knee replacements, dental implants, eyeglass frames and bike frames, and it clads buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.