A company makes titanium components for medical replacement joints. The diagram shows a simplified flow process used to obtain titanium from rutile, an ore ...
Question 1 Report
A company makes titanium components for medical replacement joints. The diagram shows a simplified flow process used to obtain titanium from rutile, an ore containing titanium dioxide. Chlorine and carbon are used first to make titanium chloride. The chloride is purified before it reacts with magnesium in a sealed vessel. This process avoids using a blast furnace because titanium behaves differently from iron.
(a) Name the titanium ore shown in the first box. [1]
(b) Give the formula of titanium chloride in the third box. [1]
(c) State two reasons why titanium chloride is purified before the magnesium reaction. [2]
(d) Complete the balanced equation for the final extraction stage.
TiCl4 + ........Mg → Ti + ........MgCl2 [3]
(e) Explain why carbon cannot be used to reduce titanium dioxide directly. [3]
Answer Details
(a) The ore is rutile. [1]
(b) The chloride is \(\mathrm{TiCl_4}\). [1]
(c) Purification removes impurities and produces purer titanium; it also prevents unwanted reactions during the magnesium stage. Any two of these points gain credit. [2]
(d) \[\mathrm{TiCl_4+2Mg\rightarrow Ti+2MgCl_2}\]2 before \(\mathrm{Mg}\) [1], 2 before \(\mathrm{MgCl_2}\) [1], with the complete equation balanced [1].
(e) Titanium is more reactive than carbon, so carbon cannot remove oxygen from titanium dioxide. In addition, hot titanium can react with carbon to form an unwanted carbide. [3]
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