Vanadium and Titanium Entering Life: Vanadium and Titanium and Their Applications (Part 1)

Panzhihua has the highest vanadium and titanium resource reserves in China, making it the capital of vanadium and titanium in the country.

1、 Application of Vanadium

The average content of vanadium in the Earth's crust is 0.01% to 0.02%. Vanadium is a rare chemical element that is significantly lower than the average content of major industrial metals such as iron (4.2% to 4.7%), aluminum (7.4% to 8.2%), and titanium (0.45% to 0.61%).

（1） The application of vanadium in the steel industry

85% of the world's vanadium is mainly used as a steel additive to improve the strength, toughness, and heat resistance of steel. Vanadium is a versatile alloy additive, and adding a small amount of vanadium (percentage or percentage) to steel can produce high-strength low-alloy steel (0.04% to 0.15% V), high-speed steel (1% to 3% V), tool steel, stainless steel (2% to 14% V), and permanent magnets.

The main function of vanadium in steel is to react with carbon and nitrogen in the steel, forming small and hard refractory metal carbides and nitrides. These compounds act as refining agents and precipitation strengthening agents, which can increase the strength, toughness, and wear resistance of the steel. Vanadium is used in tool and mold steel. In high carbon steel, vanadium forms hard carbides, achieving the required wear resistance for molds and machine tools. At high temperatures, carbides do not soften, so the cutting edge at the end of high-speed tools will not deteriorate when they are red hot. The bearings of gas turbine engines also require the same characteristics and use this type of steel. Vanadium containing steel has high strength, toughness, wear resistance, and good corrosion resistance, and is widely used in fields such as oil and gas pipelines, machine manufacturing, construction, automobiles, railways, pressure vessels, bridges, and metal molds.

（2） Application of Vanadium in Nonferrous Metals

5% to 7% of vanadium in the world is used for non-ferrous metals. The alloying of titanium can increase its strength by 1-2 times and also improve its corrosion resistance. Vanadium is one of the main alloying elements of titanium and is added in the form of vanadium aluminum alloy. The most important alloy composed of vanadium and titanium is Ti-6Al-4V (TC4), which has good stability at room temperature and high fatigue resistance. It is used for aircraft frames and fasteners, compressor turbine discs and blades.

Vanadium is contained in cobalt nickel alloys, which have strong magnetism and can be used as soft magnetic and high magnetic materials.

Vanadium niobium tantalum alloy has strong high temperature resistance and oxidation resistance at high temperatures, and is used in space shuttles, artificial satellites, and missiles.

Vanadium niobium alloy, vanadium gallium (V3Ga), and vanadium silicon (V3Si) are excellent superconducting materials.

（3） Application of Vanadium in Chemical Industry

5% of vanadium in the world is used in the chemical industry.

Vanadium compounds are used as catalysts in sulfuric acid, petroleum cracking, and organic synthesis in chemical industry production. For example, sodium vanadate and ammonium vanadate can be used as catalysts in sulfuric acid production. Vanadium pentoxide can be used as a catalyst for denitrification and oxidation of cyclohexane to adipic acid, in polymerization reactions and oxalic acid production. Ammonium metavanadate can be used as a catalyst for the production of phosphate fertilizers, nylon, polyester, polyvinyl chloride, and other materials; Vanadium chloride is used as a rubber catalyst for the production of propylene and in the automotive industry.

2. In terms of pigments, bismuth vanadate yellow pigment is used in plastics, rubber, ceramics, paints, printing inks, etc., especially in the application of yellow automotive paint, automotive repair paint, and high-end architectural coatings. Vanadate bismuth temperature indicating pigment. Vanadium Zirconium Blue Material: Vanadium Zirconium Blue is a pigment used in zirconium based ceramic glazes, widely used in the ceramic, enamel, and glass industries. It can produce blue, green, and yellow colors and is used as a blue coloring agent.

3. Other applications

Vanadium redox fluid batteries are becoming increasingly important in energy storage. These batteries are like small chemical plants, with vanadium salts of different valences flowing out of storage tanks through pumps and passing through the positive and negative half cells of the battery. The electrolyte on both sides of the battery is separated by a separator and cannot be mixed. It is the mutual pollution of battery fluids. Due to the use of vanadium salts on both sides of the battery, the problems caused by pollution will be minimized. It can be expected that this type of battery will be applied in telecommunications, used together with renewable primary energy systems, as a load balancing device related to power generation, and also used in mobile systems such as forklifts, electric vehicles, golf carts, etc.

Vanadium based solid solution hydrogen storage alloys: Hydrogen storage alloys are widely used in fuel cells, electric vehicles, nickel hydrogen batteries, hydrogen storage, and hydrogen transportation. Vanadium is the only metal that can absorb and release hydrogen at room temperature, with a theoretical hydrogen absorption capacity of up to 3.8%. At present, ideal vanadium based hydrogen storage alloys with hydrogen absorption capacity greater than 3.3%, hydrogen release capacity greater than 2.3%, and hydrogen release temperature less than 100 ℃ have been developed.

Yttrium Vanadate Crystal: It is a birefringent crystal with characteristics such as hardness close to glass, non deliquescence, and easy processing and coating. Therefore, yttrium vanadate crystals are widely used in various fields such as laser communication, laser ranging, laser printing, satellite measurement, navigation, etc.

Vanadium luminescent materials: Yttrium europium vanadium phosphate and Yttrium europium vanadate are both efficient red luminescent materials, which were once used as the red component of color TV phosphors. They are still widely used in high-pressure mercury vapor discharge fluorescent lamps as luminescent materials for adjusting chromaticity. Vanadium containing luminescent materials will have broad application prospects. Luminescent materials have been widely used in technology, industry, agriculture, and even people's daily lives. It can be predicted that luminescent materials will be widely applied in the 21st century.

Vanadium dioxide optical conversion coating: It is a promising material with broad application prospects. It can be used in solar control materials, infrared radiation thermometers, thermistors, thermal switches, variable reflectors, infrared pulse laser protective films, optical disc media materials, holographic storage materials, point color display materials, color filters, thermochromic display materials, nonlinear or linear resistive materials, temperature sensors, adjustable microwave switch devices, infrared optical modulation materials, high-sensitivity strain sensors, transparent conductive materials, anti-static coatings, and other fields by utilizing its special optical and electrical properties after phase transition.