The Chemistry of Titanium Jewelry

Titanium and oxygen are the two main components of the jewelry.

• Titanium Oxide - TiO2
• One process of obtaining titanium starts off with a material referred to as a sponge. It is referred to a sponge because it is a highly porous material and entrapped in the pores Ti and the salts NaCl and MgCl2 are found. To get the titanium out of the sponge they crush the sponge. To separate the salt out of the material they use a process called heap leaching, which is a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and then re-separates them after the division from other earth materials.

Chemistry's Role

• The different metals and their alloys immediately oxidize when it is exposed to air. so titanium, will react with the oxygen in the air and it will create a thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) over the surface of the metal. The process called anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process which is used to increase the natural oxide (O2) layer on the surface of metals. So when anodizing titanium the oxide levels increase on the metal the higher of the voltage the more the layer increases which also creates the different colors. To anodize titanium you have to place the metal in a conductive solution such as sulfuric acid or even diet coke.
• Titanium isn't the only metal that can be anodized. Some other metals that can go through this process as well are niobium, tantalum, aluminum, magnesium, and zinc. Titanium can be anodized by heat but the color results are harder to control compared to anodizing through electricity.
• Anodizing titanium with heat will most likely only give you the colors of bronze, blues, and maybe yellow, but when you go through the electricity way you will get a larger range of colors

Background Research

• Anodized titanium jewelry is used for many piercings such as ear, lip, navel(bellybutton) piercings etc. Anodized titanium has a large range of colors which makes it appealing to consumers. on top of the appealing colors titanium is a better metal used for piercing jewelry because it doesn’t wear and break as easily as the other metals used for piercing jewelry.
• It is made out of titanium Ti which has the atomic number of 22.
• The main chemical reaction needed to create the jewelry is a process called anodization. Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process which is used to increase the natural oxide (O2) layer on the surface of different metals
• It is made of Ti with a titanium oxide layer TiO2 over the surface of the titanium.

Resources

https://piercingexp.com/info/info-jewelry.html

anodized titanium coloring

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_piercing_materials

the jewelry is just made out of titanium but some other jewelry is made out of a titanium alloy which is mainly composed of titanium, aluminum, and vanadium (Ti6Al4V)

http://tattoo.about.com/od/piercingsgeneralinfo/a/bjmaterials.htm

The strength of the metal makes it impervious to scratches, chip, and any imperfections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

Anodizing process and how the colors are different

http://brnskll.com/shares/anodizing/

Titanium isn't the only metal that can be anodized. Some other metals that can go through this process as well are niobium, tantalum, aluminum, magnesium, and zinc

Titanium can be anodized by heat but the results are a lot harder to control compared to anodizing through electricity.

http://mrtitanium.com/interference.html

anodizing titanium with heat will most likely only give you the colors of bronze, blues, and maybe yellow.

but when you go through the electricity way you will get a larger range of colors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium

Ti (titanium) has an atomic # of 22

The different metals and their alloys immediately oxidize when it is exposed to air. so titanium, will react with the oxygen in the air and it will create a thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) over the surface of the metal.

http://www.anodizeusa.com/anodizing-systems-titanium-anodizing.php

a solution that can be used for anodizing is sulfuric acid and diet coke

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