It was developed by Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer in 1925 for Philips Nv.

As seen in the diagram, impure titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, thorium or protactinium is heated in an evacuated vessel with a halogen at 50–250 °C.

The patent specifically involved the intermediacy of TiI4 and ZrI4, which were volatilized (leaving impurities as solid).

The gaseous metal tetraiodide is decomposed on a white hot tungsten filament (1400 °C).

The process can be performed in the span of several hours or several weeks, depending on the particular setup.