Lightweight structures 92 modern

The transition metals iron and copper have been known since antiquity and have played an important role in the development of civilization. Iron, the main constituent of steel, is still important as a structural material. Worldwide production of steel amounts to some 800 million tons per year. In newer technologies, other transition elements are useful. For example, the strong, lightweight metal titanium is a major component in modern jet aircraft. Transition metals are also used as heterogeneous catalysts in automobile catalytic converters and in the industrial synthesis of essential chemicals such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and ammonia. 

---