A ferro-titanium oxide mineral with ideal molecular formula FeTiO3. It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray mineral. Ilmenite is the most important titanium ore and the main source of titanium dioxide, used in paints, printing inks, fabrics, plastics, paper, sunscreen, food and cosmetics.
Titanium can also form many compounds, they also have a variety of special properties and uses, such as titanium dioxide, is a white powder, it is the best white pigment, commonly known as "titanium white", 1 gram of titanium dioxide can be more than 450 square centimeters of the area painted white. Titanium dioxide used as white pigment in the world is more than hundreds of thousands of tons a year. If titanium dioxide is added to the paper, it can make the paper white and opaque, so the paper used in the manufacture of banknotes and fine arts is sometimes added to titanium dioxide, in addition, in order to make the color of the plastic lighter and make the rayon luster soft, it is sometimes added to titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is known as the whitest thing in the world. Most of the titanium in nature is in a dispersed state, mainly forming minerals ilmenite TeTiO3 and rutile TiO2, and vanadilmenite. China's Panzhihua area of Sichuan Province is very rich in vanadilmenite, reserves of about 1.5 billion tons.
So how was titanium discovered? In 1791, British scientist Grigor found a kind of ore in the outskirts of Minahan - black magnetic sand, through the study of this ore, he believes that there is a new chemical element in the ore. The new element was named after Minahan, the place where the ore was found.
Four years later, the German chemist Klapoute found this new element from a red ore in Buynik, Hungary, he named it after the name of the "Tai Dan" in Greek mythology (the Chinese translation of its original name, named titanium), Klapoute also specifically pointed out that the new element "Minahan" discovered by Grigor is titanium, but found at that time, It's actually powdered titanium dioxide instead of titanium metal. Until 1910, the American chemist Handel was the first to produce 99.9% purity of the metal titanium, but a total of less than 1 gram. From the discovery of titanium to the production of metal titanium, before and after 120 years, to 1947, people began to refine titanium in the factory, at that time, the annual production of only 2 tons. By 1955, production had surged to 20,000 tons. By 1972, annual production reached 200,000 tons. The use of titanium is more and more widely, more and more people's attention, people call it the future of steel, the 21st century metal.
