Time to make titanium

Titanium. One of the elements of the periodic table. A valuable metal used for many different things, due to it's strength and light weight.

But what most people don't know is why titanium so valuable. It's not that rare of an ore, in fact it's probably more common than some other metals. What makes is so valuable is because it's hard to melt it down successfully. Titanium has to be melted in an oxygen free environment or else it will catch fire during the process, getting it into a vacuum to melt it down is what's expensive.

But there's been a method found to melt titanium successfully that you could do at your own home, though it is not recommended.

The process is known as thermite reduction, a method commonly used for welding train tracks. Essentially, it is just a reaction between iron dioxide and aluminum that yields a liquid version of that metal. So the theory was to swap the iron dioxide for titanium. But in the intended reaction, there is not enough heat released to melt the titanium.

So a solution was found in the form of additional aluminum(powdered) and calcium sulfate(drywall plaster) to add additional heat to the reaction to successfully melt everything. You also need to add some ground fluorite powder to protect the titanium from the oxygen during the reaction. Oh, and all of this should be done in an old flower pot.

Will I ever do this? Probably not. Am I excited knowing that I could? Extremely.

http://www.popsci.com/node/30347