Interim note on the preparation of Titanium from Titanium tetrachloride by Kroll’s process

Abstract

Metallic titanium has been produced on a laboratory scale according to Kroll’s process from very pure titanium tetrachloride and magnesium at 900° in an atmosphere of helium. The metal was found to have spongy appearance. Further investigations are in progress. In this note a few experimental results on the preparation of titanium metal from TiCl4 are given. The note further gives a number of technical difficulties; one has to be face in the laboratory for the preparation of the metal. Kroll’s process for titanium manufacture is well known and was adopted in the present series of experiments. Experiments on the reduction of titanium tetrachloride by magnesium under vacuum at 900° c were carried out. The results were not satisfactory due to several reasons given in the body of the note. Due to the difficulties of obtaining sufficiently pure inert gas, it was possible to carry out only one experiment under the helium atmosphere. The product obtained appeared to be satisfactory. Further experiments will be carried out under argon as sufficient bulk of this gas is now made available.