Titanium white

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Arthur Dove, Silver Sun, 1929. The painting is an early documented instance of titanium white's use. Arthur Dove Silver Sun.jpg
Arthur Dove, Silver Sun, 1929. The painting is an early documented instance of titanium white's use.

Titanium white is a family of white pigments composed primarily of titanium dioxide. [1] It is the most widely used white pigment in contemporary artistic applications because of its affordability, low toxicity, and high hiding power. Though the term titanium white most often refers to pigments containing titanium dioxide, it can also describe any white pigment that contains a titanium compound (e.g. zinc titanate, barium titanate, potassium titanate, titanium lithopone, titanium silicate). [1] :295

Contents

History

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a bright white substance first named and created in a laboratory in the late 1800s. It is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 or CI 77891 when used specifically as a pigment in paints and was initially used as a pigment in the ceramic arts for yellow glazes. The pigment was further developed for industrial use in the 1910s by the Titanium Pigment Company in the United States and the Titan Company in Norway, each working independently. The two manufactures cross-licensed their patents in 1920. [1] :297 By the late 1920s, titanium and zinc white had unseated lead white as the dominant product in the market for white pigment. [2] Most art supply companies now explicitly advise that titanium white should be used instead of lead white for safety reasons. [3]

Visual characteristics

Titianium white provides greater hiding power and tinting strength than any other white pigment. [1] Titanium white was initially more expensive to produce than lead white, but its superior hiding power soon made it a more economical choice because smaller quantities were required to achieve the same degree of opacity. [1] :309

Notable occurrences

Titanium white featured regularly in the palette of Arthur Dove, who was among its earliest adopters in the 1920s. [4] It has also been identified in the work of Thomas Hart Benton, [5] Diego Rivera, [6] Pablo Picasso, [7] and Jackson Pollock. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titanium</span> Chemical element with atomic number 22 (Ti)

Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in sea water, aqua regia, and chlorine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pigment</span> Colored material

A pigment is a powder used to add color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly insoluble and chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored substances which are soluble or go into solution at some stage in their use. Dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic. Pigments of prehistoric and historic value include ochre, charcoal, and lapis lazuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gesso</span> Paint primer composed of a white pigment and a binder

Gesso, also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels or masonite as a permanent absorbent primer substrate for painting. It consists of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titanium dioxide</span> Chemical compound

Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania, is the inorganic compound derived from titanium with the chemical formula TiO
2
. When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insoluble in water, although mineral forms can appear black. As a pigment, it has a wide range of applications, including paint, sunscreen, and food coloring. When used as a food coloring, it has E number E171. World production in 2014 exceeded 9 million tonnes. It has been estimated that titanium dioxide is used in two-thirds of all pigments, and pigments based on the oxide have been valued at a price of $13.2 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hart Benton (painter)</span> American painter (1889–1975)

Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter, muralist, and printmaker. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. The fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil paint</span> Type of slow-drying paint

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. For several centuries the oil painting has been perhaps the most prestigious form in Western art, but oil paint has many practical uses, mainly because it is waterproof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoke screen</span> Airborne obscurant using gas and particulates

A smoke screen is smoke released to mask the movement or location of military units such as infantry, tanks, aircraft, or ships.

Lithopone, C.I. Pigment White 5, is a mixture of inorganic compounds, widely used as a white pigment powder. It is composed of a mixture of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide. These insoluble compounds blend well with organic compounds and confer opacity. It was made popular by the cheap production costs, greater coverage. Related white pigments include titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, zinc sulfide, and white lead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naples yellow</span> Lead-antimonate inorganic pigment used in paintings

Naples yellow, also called antimony yellow or lead antimonate yellow, is an inorganic pigment that largely replaced lead-tin-yellow and has been used in European paintings since the seventeenth century. While the mineral orpiment is considered to be the oldest yellow pigment, Naples yellow, like Egyptian blue, is one of the oldest known synthetic pigments. Naples yellow was used in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, finding widespread application during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Prior to its earliest occurrences in European paintings, the pigment was commonly employed in pottery, glazes, enamels, and glass. The pigment ranged in hue from a muted, earthy, reddish yellow to a bright light yellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lead paint</span> Paint containing lead compounds as pigments

Lead paint or lead-based paint is paint containing lead. As pigment, lead(II) chromate, lead(II,IV) oxide,, and lead(II) carbonate are the most common forms. Lead is added to paint to accelerate drying, increase durability, maintain a fresh appearance, and resist moisture that causes corrosion. It is one of the main health and environmental hazards associated with paint. Lead paint has been generally phased out of use due to the toxic nature of lead. Alternatives such as water-based, lead-free traffic paint are readily available.

Lead white is a thick, opaque, and heavy white pigment composed primarily of basic lead carbonate, 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2, with a crystalline molecular structure. It was the most widely produced and used white pigment in different parts of the world from antiquity until the nineteenth century, when it was displaced by zinc white and later by titanium white. Lead white has maintained relatively consistent production methods across times and regions, yet it has a wide range of applications in different contexts, such as home decoration, art production, and cosmetics. Given its affordability and distinctive visual qualities, lead white was particularly favored and generously used by artists in their paintings. However, most art supply companies now explicitly advise against the use of lead white because of the risk that it poses of lead poisoning. Even after this drawback was known, it continued to be used in paintings and cosmetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zinc white</span> Inorganic pigment

Zinc white is an inorganic pigment composed of zinc oxide that has been used by painters since the late eighteenth century. Alongside lead and titanium white, it is among the three most prominent white pigments that are commercially available today. Its primary advantages are its low toxicity and the cool clarity of its color. It was initially developed in the 1780s by the French chemist and magistrate Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, who struggled to popularize its use. The French Academy of Sciences approved of the invention in 1782, but artists from the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture expressed skepticism. Initially, zinc white pigment was more costly to produce than lead white, but its price diminished as production methods improved over the course of the nineteenth century. While the superior safety of zinc white had been established by the end of the eighteenth century, manufacturers of lead white downplayed these differences, and lead continued to dominate the market for white paint until the early twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White lead</span> Chemical compound

White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian ceruse, because of its opacity and the satiny smooth mixture it made with dryable oils. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White</span> Lightest color

White is the lightest color and is achromatic. It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on television and computer screens is created by a mixture of red, blue, and green light. The color white can be given with white pigments, especially titanium dioxide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barium borate</span> Chemical compound

Barium borate is an inorganic compound, a borate of barium with a chemical formula BaB2O4 or Ba(BO2)2. It is available as a hydrate or dehydrated form, as white powder or colorless crystals. The crystals exist in the high-temperature α phase and low-temperature β phase, abbreviated as BBO; both phases are birefringent, and BBO is a common nonlinear optical material.

British Titan Products was the manufacturer of Tioxide, a brand of white yet opaque pigment and whitening agent made from titanium dioxide. It was initially organised to replace titanium dioxide supplies that British paint manufacturers imported from Germany. This British industry was established as a joint venture in 1934 by two of the world's major mining and chemical businesses in conjunction with a major industrial consumer and a distribution business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachtleben Chemie</span>

Sachtleben Chemie is a chemicals producer, with its primary focus on the production of white pigments, fillers and extenders. The company employs some 2,200 persons and achieves annual sales of around 820 million euros (2012). Sachtleben has been a member of the multinational Venator group since 2017. The company's corporate history reaches back over 130 years. Sachtleben produces particles using titanium dioxide, zinc sulfide and barium sulfate as the chemical basis, and markets these products worldwide. The principal applications for Sachtleben products include man-made fibers, paints and other coatings, plastics, and paper. Sachtleben also supplies special particles to the foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries, and has interests in the fields of chromatography, nanotechnology, catalysis, and the production of building materials. The company leads the world in special titanium dioxide grades for printing inks and for the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food industries. The production facilities at all three locations apply the sophisticated sulfate-route process.

The +4 oxidation state dominates titanium chemistry, but compounds in the +3 oxidation state are also numerous. Commonly, titanium adopts an octahedral coordination geometry in its complexes, but tetrahedral TiCl4 is a notable exception. Because of its high oxidation state, titanium(IV) compounds exhibit a high degree of covalent bonding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground (art)</span> Term in art

In visual arts, the ground is a prepared surface that covers the support of the picture and underlies the actual painting. Occasionally the term is also used in a broad sense to designate any surface used for painting, for example, paper for watercolor or plaster for fresco.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Laver, Marilyn (1997). "Titanium Dioxide Whites". In Fitzhugh, Elisabeth West (ed.). Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics. Vol. 3. Archetype. pp. 295–355.
  2. Markowitz, Gerald; Rosner, David (1987). Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. University of California Press. p. 54.
  3. Finlay, Victoria (2002). Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Random House. p. 111.
  4. Wimsatt, J. (1982). "Wax Emulsion, Tempera or Oil? Arthur Dove's Materials, Techniques, and Surface Effect". American Institute for Conservation: Preprints: 183–88.
  5. Branchick, T.; Braun, E. (1985). "The Restoration of 'America Today'". Thomas Hart Benton: The 'America Today' Murals. Williams College Museum of Art. pp. 66–82.
  6. Heller, B. (1988). "The Conservation of Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Fresco Cycle". American Institute for Conservation: Preprints: 85–98.
  7. Coupry, C. (1987). "Analyses de pigments blancs appliquées à I'étude chronologique des peintures de chevalet-blanc de titane". www.icom-cc-publications-online.org. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  8. Gabrieli, Francesca; Rosi, Francesca; Vichi, Alessandra; Cartechini, Laura; Pensabene Buemi, Luciano; Kazarian, Sergei G.; Miliani, Costanza (2017). "Revealing the Nature and Distribution of Metal Carboxylates in Jackson Pollock's Alchemy (1947) by Micro-Attenuated Total Reflection FT-IR Spectroscopic Imaging". Analytical Chemistry. 89 (2): 1283–1289. doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04065. ISSN   0003-2700. PMID   28035811.