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General Principles And Processes Of Isolation Of Elements

Question
CBSEENCH12009900

Titanium is a metal of modern times. It is obtained as oxide. Why it could not be extracted earlier despite its wide occurence?

Solution
Titanium is extracted from its ore, rutile - TiO2. It is first converted into titanium(IV) chloride, which is then reduced to titanium using either magnesium or sodium. The ore rutile (impure titanium(IV) oxide) is heated with chlorine and coke at a temperature of about 1000°C.
 
It could not be extracted earlier because it was very difficult to get titanium of high purity required are special applications which is not known in earlier.