Titanium tetrachloride smoke

Navy Type 2 Target Indicator had a bomb-shape thin bakelite body, 17 inches long, 3 inches in diam, filled with FM (Titanium Tetrachloride) smoke-mix. The bomb had no fuze because its light body was designed to break (when dropped from a high altitude) on hitting water, thus releasing the smoke mix (Ref 1, p 246 Fig 404 on P 245)... 

Ballantyne, B., Dosage levels associated with the induction of respiratory tract inflammation by acute exposures to titanium tetrachloride smokes, Toxicologist, 2, 159-160, 1982. 

Apparently it is mildly irritating to flying moths, as Baker and Linn (1984) report that oriental fruit moths will fly in apparently normal fashion upwind in the plume of pheromone and titanium tetrachloride smoke until they reach a critical point near the source and drop to the ground, apparently dead. ... 

Titanium tetrachloride is used to iridize glass. This compound fumes strongly in air and has been used to produce smoke screens. 

This is a clear liquid that vaporizes and, on contact with damp air, combines with w ater to produce a dense acid mist. Titanium tetrachloride can be painted on to surfaces, such as fume cupboard sills, from which it will evaporate over a period of several seconds showing the airflow patterns close to the surface. (Airflow patterns close to a surface could also be visualized by fastening short filaments of wool or cotton to the surface). Titanium tetrachloride can also be used, when soaked onto a cotton swab, in a similar way to a smoke tube. It is a simple and inexpensive method but the production of smoke, which is toxic and corrosive, is uncontrollable. 

Titanium tetrachloride is used to prepare titanium dioxide and most other titanium compounds. It also is used in making iridescent glass arificial pearls and smoke screens. The compound is a polymerization catalyst. 

Type 2 2-kg Target Indicator consisted of a Bakelite cylinder with round nose and tail provided with fins. The filling consisted of liquid FM (Titanium Tetrachloride). This smoke mixture was scattered when the bomb was released from a plane, hit the target and broke (pp 113-14, Fig 86)... 

The incendiary bombs usually contained thermite or magnesium incendiary mixture, and some smoke bombs contained a titanium tetrachloride mixture... 

When titanium tetrachloride is mixed with water, voluminous clouds of a white smoke of titanium dioxide particles are produced by the reaction... 

FIGURE 5.48 Titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, is a liquid that reacts with water to form titanium dioxide, Ti02. When squirted out of appropriate containers, it can be used for producing smoke screens or, as here, for skywriting. 

The principal use for the tetrachloride is in pyrots as a smoke agent (called FM ), Ref 5 reports that the tetrachloride. . is extremely reactive resulting in the formation of hydrated oxides, or with atmospheric moisture and, when used for screening, is often disseminated from aircraft spray tanks. Its reaction with water vapor is relatively complex. First, the titanium tetrachloride is hydrated. This reaction is followed by further hydrolysis yielding, finally, titanium hydroxide and HC1. The smoke consists of a mixture of fine particles of solid titanium hydroxide, Ti(0H)4 the hydrated oxide, Ti02-H20 intermediate hydroxychlorides of titanium and dilute HC1 droplets. The sequence of reaction is ... 

Titanium tetrachloride can also be disseminated when dissolved in dichloroethane and similar materials. The solid evaporates and the titanium tetrachloride reacts with water vapor in the air to produce smoke. . 

Chemical agents which produce an obscuring smoke. See Titanium Tetrachloride, Silicon Tetrachloride, Chlorsulfonic Acid-Sulfur Trioxide Solution. 

Titanium tetrachloride.. (22) Titanium tetrachloride (TiCli) FM None Screening agent 10 min. in open Same as summer Smoke irritation negli ble... 

Like silicon tetrachloride, complete decomposition of the titanium tetrachloride, according to tbe above equation, is inhibited by an excess of hydrochlorie acid. Th efore, the best smoke is formed when tbe titanium tetrachloride is present in low concentrations and there is an excels of moisture in the air (five parts of water to one of the tetrachloride. 

It requires 0.15 oz. of titanium tetrachloride to produce 1,000 cu. ft. of smokSt against 0.06 oz. of phosphorus, so tliat, on a boats of W]ual weights, the former is about 40 per cent as efficient a smoke pru-ducer as the latter. 

Titanium tetrachloride, although more expcn. dve and not otherwiw. uperior to FS, is nevertheless used as a filler in art-Ulerr and mortar-smoke. shell. 

Titanium tetrachloride is used as an intermediate in the production of titanium metal, titanium dioxide, and titanium chloride pigments, as a polymerization catalyst, in the manufacture of iridescent glass and faux pearls, and with ammonia to produce smoke screens. It is also used as a catalyst in many organic syntheses in the chemical industry. Titanium tetrachloride was formerly used with potassium bitartrate as a mordant in the textile industry, and with dye-woods in dyeing leather. 

Chemistry and Generation. Titanium tetrachloride (CAS No. 7550-45-0), also known as titanic chloride and has the military code of FM, is a colorless liquid of vapor pressure 10.0 mm Hg (20°C Whitehead, 1983), that fumes strongly when exposed to moist air, forming a persistent dense white cloud (Lewis, 1993). The exothermic reaction products are oxychlorides and hydrogen chloride (Ballantyne, 1982) and finally titanium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid (Lee et al., 1986). One dissemination mode is from aircraft for the production of smoke curtains extending down to ground/sea level (RAMC, 2002). 

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