What is the difference between titanium dioxide produced by different processes?

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a functional and versatile white pigment with excellent physical and chemical properties, not only possessing extremely high whiteness and brightness, but also excellent opacity, good optical properties and excellent chemical stability.

 

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a functional and versatile white pigment with excellent physical and chemical properties, not only possessing extremely high whiteness and brightness, but also excellent opacity, good optical properties and excellent chemical stability. The application of TiO2 in the fields of coatings, plastics, papermaking, printing, cosmetics, food, medicine and so on, promotes the development of various industries. With the increasing concern for environmental protection and health, the application prospect of titanium dioxide will also be broader.

 

So, what is the difference between titanium dioxide produced by different processes?

According to the different production processes, titanium dioxide is mainly divided into sulfuric acid titanium dioxide and chloride titanium dioxide.

Chlorinated titanium dioxide is very popular in the coatings industry because of its low impurity content, narrow particle size distribution, high whiteness and excellent pigment properties. Although initially the quality of sulfuric acid products was not as good as that of chlorination, in order to compete with chlorination, sulfuric acid method has continuously improved the production process and strengthened the process control, which has also significantly improved the quality of the products.

Nevertheless, the quality of chlorinated titanium dioxide is still slightly better than that of sulfuric acid products in some aspects (e.g., particle size distribution, impurity content, color phase, etc.). However, due to the high operating rate of chlorination plants, the proportion of chlorinated titanium dioxide production in the world titanium dioxide market has exceeded that of sulfuric acid. 1996, the production capacity of chlorination accounted for 55% of the world's total production capacity, compared with 45% of sulfuric acid.

Currently, the U.S. market almost no longer uses the sulfuric acid method to produce rutile titanium dioxide, and the remaining sulfuric acid plants mainly produce anatase titanium dioxide. Rutile titanium dioxide has dominated coatings due to its superior performance and is expected to continue to grow in the future.

Compared with sulfuric acid titanium dioxide, chlorination titanium dioxide has higher purity and better performance, as well as the advantages of short production process, continuous operation and less waste emission, which makes it more in line with the increasingly stringent environmental protection policy and represents the future development trend of the titanium dioxide industry.

However, the chlorination method requires higher raw materials and is more costly for some enterprises or countries with insufficient supply of raw materials. In addition, chlorination method titanium dioxide can only produce rutile titanium dioxide, can not produce anatase titanium dioxide, and some industries can only use anatase titanium dioxide. Therefore, chlorinated titanium dioxide in some applications can not completely replace the sulfate method. From a comprehensive point of view, the sulfate method and the chlorination method will still coexist in China's market for a long time.

 

 

Differences between sulfuric acid titanium dioxide and chlorinated titanium dioxide

1.Difference in particle size: 
the atomic particle size of chlorinated titanium dioxide is between 190-250 nanometers, while the particle size of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide is between 250-450 nanometers;

 

2.Difference in particle size distribution: 
chlorinated titanium dioxide has a better particle size distribution;

 

3.Difference in color phase: 
due to the problem of particle size and impurities, the color phase of sulfate titanium dioxide is basically yellow phase, while chloride titanium dioxide is blue phase;

 

4.Difference in dispersion: 
there is no significant difference between the two. High dispersibility products suitable for various systems such as water-based, oil-based, plastics, etc. have been developed;

 

5.Covering power difference: 
due to the chlorination method of titanium dioxide particle size distribution is more concentrated, its covering power is slightly higher;

 

6.Difference in price: 
due to the high raw material requirements for the production of chlorination method, large investment in production equipment, the overall cost is higher than the sulfuric acid method, therefore, the price is also higher.