Titanium tetrachloride

Endpoint summary

Additional information

In water, TiCl4 rapidly hydrolyses to HCl and TiO2, which is insoluble under environmental conditions and is naturally present in the environment. Bioaccumulation is therefore not expected to be of concern. This is supported by the study conducted with TiO2 nanoparticles, by Federici et al., using rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as test organism. The titanium concentrations measured in fish exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles for 14 days, were equivalent to the concentrations measured in the control organisms. The tissue concentrations of Ti metal reported (0.1–0.5 mol/g dry weight) were also broadly similar to background levels in shellfish (0.04–1.34 mol/g dry weight, Bustamante and Miramand, 2005) and laboratory mice (1–4 mol/g wet weight depending on the organ,Wang et al., 2007). By calculation, BCF values up to 352 L/kg were obtained for the test fish, but the BCF calculated for control fish was in the same range (383 L/kg). There was thus no indication of accumulation of titanium in fish organs during the study (Federici, 2007).