Reduction of the titanium chloride

Reduction by sodium: The titanium(IV) chloride is added to a reactor in which very pure sodium has been heated to about 550°C - everything being under an inert argon atmosphere. During the reaction, the temperature increases to about 1000°C.

After the reaction is complete, and everything has cooled (several days in total - an obvious inefficiency of the batch process), the mixture is crushed and washed with dilute hydrochloric acid to remove the sodium chloride.