Humans discovered titanium in the 19th century, and pure metal titanium was not extracted until 1910. Due to the difficulty in smelting titanium, chlorine and inert gases must be used, or it must be carried out in a vacuum. It was not until the mid 1940s that industrial production of titanium sponge was possible. As soon as the industrialization of metal smelting was realized, titanium became a "magic metal" with light weight and good corrosion resistance, and it developed rapidly.

Titanium is a metal with a strong tendency to passivation. It can quickly form a stable oxidizing protective film in air and in oxidizing or neutral aqueous solutions. Even if it is damaged, it can quickly and automatically recover, so titanium has excellent corrosion resistance in oxidizing and neutral media.

Anti-corrosion application of hafnium titanium alloy in Chinese ships

The navies and shipbuilding industries of various countries attach great importance to the application research of titanium on ships. They have researched and developed special ferroalloy series, and used a large number of titanium alloys on ships to improve the reliability and service life of ship equipment.

Our country has vast seas and territories, and spans two warm and climatic zones from north to south. Different regions have different marine environments. The atmosphere in the marine environment contains a large amount of chloride ions, has a high electrical conductivity, and it is easy to form micro-corrosion cells and macro-corrosion cells on the metal surface, which increases the activity of corrosion, can damage the passivation film on the metal surface, and promote the formation of Pitting and crevice corrosion. Even under normal atmospheric conditions, stainless steel with good corrosion resistance will locally corrode in seawater. 

Compared with other metals, hafnium titanium alloy has good seawater corrosion resistance, so it has been widely used in ships.

Table: Comparison of corrosion resistance of several metals in seawater

Application of titanium alloy in oral cavity

Titanium and titanium alloys as medical metal materials can be traced back to the early 1940s. Bothe and others first introduced titanium to the medical field; in the early 1950s, Britain and the United States and other countries first used pure titanium to manufacture bone plates, screws, intramedullary Implants such as nails and hips. In 1958, Branemark and others first introduced titanium alloys into the oral cavity field, pioneered the research of dental titanium implants, and applied them to the clinic in 1965, and proposed the concept of osseointegration; Buehler in the 1960s Utilizing the superelasticity and memory effect of titanium-nickel alloys to make orthodontic wires; since the 1980s, the United States, Japan, and Germany have begun to use titanium and titanium alloys for dental crowns, bridges, bases, and cards. Titanium materials such as rings and crown nails have become more and more important to dentists and patients.

The advantages of oral titanium and titanium alloy materials

①In the acidic and alkaline environment, the amount of melting is small, and there is no problem of corrosion and discoloration.

② High safety, no hypersensitivity reaction caused by nickel alloy.

Because titanium has no magnetic field interference on magnetic resonance imaging, patients do not need to remove the denture or implant when performing magnetic resonance imaging examination.

④ The density of pure titanium is only 4.5g / cm, which is close to the density of natural teeth. The dentures produced are light in weight and have a good setting feel.

⑤Pure titanium has low thermal conductivity and is not irritating to the pulp.

⑥ Compared with traditional oral materials, it has the characteristics of not changing the taste of food when chewing. Therefore, titanium and titanium alloys are one of the best oral materials for clinical application.

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