Titanium oxides can be basically divided into three kinds: titanium dioxide, titanium tetrachloride and barium metatitanate. Their application is very extensive, but their development space is limited because of the high cost. However, we believe that in the near future, with the continuous development of titanium industry technology, titanium oxides will get greater development.
A. Titanium dioxide: It is a white powder, the best white pigment, commonly known as titanium dioxide.
1. Titanium dioxide has strong adhesion and is not easy to change chemically. It is always white. Special attention should be paid to the non-toxicity of titanium dioxide. It has a high melting point and is used to make refractory glass, glaze enamel, pottery, high-temperature experimental utensils and so on.
2. Titanium dioxide has the covering property of lead white and the durability of zinc white. Titanium dioxide is usually added to paint to make high-grade white paint; additives are added to paddles in paper industry; and matting agents for man-made fibers in textile industry.
3. In order to lighten the color of plastic and soften the artificial mercerization, titanium dioxide is sometimes added. In the rubber industry, titanium dioxide is also used as filler for white rubber.
B. Titanium tetrachloride: Titanium tetrachloride is an interesting colorless liquid with a melting point of 250 K and a boiling point of 409 K. It has a stimulating odor and emits a lot of white smoke in wet air. This is because it hydrolyzes and produces white titanium dioxide hydrogel (TiCL4+3H2O= H2TiO3+4HCL). In military affairs, titanium tetrachloride is conveniently used as artificial smoke agent. Especially in the ocean, there is a lot of water and gas. When titanium tetrachloride is released, the smoke is like a white Great Wall, blocking the enemy’s sight. In agriculture, people will use the fog formed by TiCL4 to reduce the loss of surface heat at night and protect vegetables and crops from the danger of cold and frost.
C. Barium metatitanate: It is made by melting titanium dioxide and BaCO3 together. Barium titanate crystals have the characteristic that when pressed, they produce electric current, and when electrified, they change their shape. Therefore, people put barium titanate in the ultrasonic wave, it will generate current when it is pressed, and the magnitude of the current generated by it can be used to measure the strength of the ultrasonic wave. On the contrary, ultrasonic waves can be generated by passing through it with high frequency current. It is now used in almost all ultrasound instruments. For example, railroad workers put it under the rails to measure the pressure when the train passes; doctors use it to make pulse recorders and so on. With the development and utilization of titanate, it is more and more widely used in non-linear components, dielectric amplifiers, computer memory elements, micro capacitors, aviation, semiconductor, optical instruments, reagents and so on.