Will Titanium Dioxide be Replaced by Silicon Powder?

On March 17, Huntsman announced that they plan to shut down the titanium dioxide (TiO2) production facility in Calais France in the third quarter of 2017.
Titanium dioxide enterprises have raised their prices since 2016. According to analyses, price of titanium dioxide is expected to exceed 20,000 yuan per ton in 2017.
Titanium dioxide is applicable to many areas, such as battery, paint and coating, cosmetic industries. The buyers, especially those in the coating industry, feel quite helpless about the price increase as they have to reduce the margin to survive.

It can not be denied that titanium dioxide plays an important role in paint and coating industry. Pigment grade titanium dioxide has extensive usages as it has high refractive index, strong tinting strength and covering power, good dispersion and whiteness, nontoxicity, stable physical and chemical properties as well as excellent optical and electrical properties.

The use of tio2 can greatly reduce the amount of pigment in the coating and intense the colors in paints. The amount of titanium dioxide accounts for more than 90% of the total pigment used in paints and more than 95% of the white pigment for paints.
Because of the big consumption in the coating industry and increasing TiO2 price, can coating enterprises choose an appropriate product to replace titanium dioxide to save cost, such as silicon micro powder?



Silicon powder has good stability and has played an important role as a paint filler. Characteristics of whiteness, hardness, suspension, dispersion, low absorption rate and high resistivity ensure it increases the corrosion resistance, wear resistance, insulation resistance, high temperature performance of coatings.

Adding silicon powder to flame retardant insulation coating can improve the thixotropic properties of coatings. These coatings could coat evenly without cracks.
Silicon powder from OKCHEM is nontoxic, odorless and low metal content. It does not contain organic substances pollution. This chemical can improve UV resistance of the coating and has good thermal insulation effect.

Silicon powder has features such as short grinding time, strong adhesion and fast drying. It could expand the capacity when used in the processing of mixed paint, primer and rust-proof paint. Besides, it has a significant effect on increasing paint fineness, leveling properties, film hardness, and reducing coating grinding time, water, rust and corrosion-resistant properties, pigment dispersion, storage stability of paints.

Due to the pressure on environmental regulations, upswing price of titanium dioxide and China’s rich quartz resources, silicon powder shows an attractive and broad market prospects. Please read more here for more information!
Source: https://www.okchem.com/news/will-titanium-dioxide-be-replaced-by-silicon-powder.html