Titanium Dioxide Pigments

Abstract

In 1791 William Gregor discovered titanium dioxide in black magnetic sand in Cornwall and in 1795 M H Klaproth isolated the oxide from mineral rutile in Hungary, but the first commercial production of titanium dioxide pigment did not take place until the 1920s. The first pigments produced were achieved by reacting ilmenite (FeTiO₃) with sulfuric acid, followed by a hydrolysis procedure, which incorporated calcium or barium sulfate. This produced the first composite pigments in which the titanium dioxide was present in the anatase crystal form. The first rutile titanium dioxide pigments appeared in the 1940s, still utilizing the sulfuric acid reaction as the first step and finally, in the late 1950s, rutile pigments produced by the chloride route were introduced commercially.