I did military engineering for some time so we worked with a lot of Titanium, but when machining it we were always told to remove scraps ASAP and bag them up because if a single spark from a welding torch got on the pile then it would go up in flames and can even explode. To demonstrate this the instructor got a pile of titanium shavings and lit them on fire. We were never instructed why this happens and googling it I could only find stuff about titanium powder in pure oxygen or the melting point of titanium.
In: Physics
Lots of surface area = more oxygen exposure = more rapid burning. Same thing with wood, a log is hard to burn, but sawdust will burn quickly. Dust explosion in grain silos. Even in your car, air+fuel mixture in the cylinder will explode vs a glass of gasoline would just burn.
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Most metals react with oxygen. In some cases, this is relatively slow (e.g. rust), but in the right conditions and with the right metals the reaction can happen extremely quickly.
Titanium is one such metal. It takes a fair bit of energy to ignite it, but **if** it goes up it burns extremely hot, and if a lot of titanium shavings or dust (i.e. a lot of surface area, and a lot of room for oxygen molecules to flow between the metal particles) go up it can burn or explode pretty spectacularly.
Another case of metal oxidation is aluminum, hence why aluminum powder was actually used as a propellant for the solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle.
A lot of metals are very flammable. In fact a piece of metal rusting is just burning very slowly, and metal shavings exploding are rusting very fast.
Normally you can’t just set a piece of metal on fire because you cannot heat up enough of it fast enough and have enough air for it to kickstart a reaction. But in powder form or shavings form the surface area of the metal increases dramatically, while each particle is small enough that it can easily come up to temp. Iron, aluminum, titanium and many other metals can all undergo this reaction. Thermite, which is very dangerous, is just metal powder and rust powder. Even a common piece of steel wool can easily catch fire and go up in flames. Do not underestimate the danger, they burn up fast and they get up hotter than most flames you’ve come across, and they don’t go out easily either.
Are you sure you’re not talking about magnesium? Magnesium is highly flammable and all but impossible to extinguish when it’s ignited.
Oxygen is lonely – it has space in its heart (outer shell) for love (electrons).
Titanium is lonely too. But its heart is too big and full of love (electrons) to give.
If Titanium and Oxygen meet each other and fall in love, titanium gives some of its electrons to Oxygen and they form a new relationship that the media nicknames “Titanium Dioxide”.
Well TiO² wants to settle down now, they’re all nicely bonded so they don’t need all the energy they used to have, so they get rid of it – in the form of heat.
Well that heat energy is provocative, it gets the people going. It gives the other Titanium and Oxygen a push to fall in love as well. Awww.
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