The Story of Titanium - by Brian Potter

The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature.

The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature. One engineer described titanium as a “streetwalker,"…

related reading

• The Story of Titaniumsubstack.com
• There has to be a better way to make titaniumorcasciences.com
• The Past and Future of Metallurgy | Contrarycontrary.com
• EVERY SUPPLY CHAIN IN THE WORLDmindslice.substack.com
• Copper - Works in Progress Magazineworksinprogress.co
• The Tinkerings of Robert Noyceweb.stanford.edu
• Liquidmetal - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• Deep Dive: Building an American TSMC | Contrary Researchresearch.contrary.com
• Notes on technology in the 2020selidourado.com
• Nanotechnology’s spring - Works in Progress Magazineworksinprogress.co
• The Secret, Magical Life Of Lithium - NOEMAnoemamag.com
• Inside TSMC’s Phoenix, Arizona expansion struggles - Rest of Worldrestofworld.org