Titanium dioxide prices in the Asian market skyrocketed due to high demand and limited stock availability. Prices in the Chinese market surged significantly, reaching 2875 USD /MT at the end of March, well above the USD 2015/MT level in January 2021.
Some websites maintain titanium dioxide is inferior to zinc oxide, another mineral sunscreen ingredient whose core characteristics are similar to those of titanium dioxide. The reality is that titanium dioxide is a great broad-spectrum SPF ingredient and is widely used in all manner of sun-protection products. What gets confusing for some consumers is trying to decipher research that ranks sunscreen ingredients by a UV spectrum graph. By most standards, broad-spectrum coverage for sunscreen ingredients is defined as one that surpasses 360 nanometers (abbreviated as “nm” - how the sun’s rays are measured). Titanium dioxide exceeds this range of protection, but depending on whose research you read, it either performs as well as or slightly below zinc oxide.
The ingredient in question? Titanium dioxide.
Lithopone is an inorganic white pigment, obtained from co-precipitation of Zinc sulfide (ZnS) and Barium sulfate (BaSO4). As a white pigment, it acts as a cost-effective alternative for TiO2. Some of the properties of Lithopone include high brightness and performance under UV exposure. Lithopone requires less wetting agent to achieve optimum wetting of its surface. It is commercially graded on the basis of amount of ZnS. Its grades include 28%, 30%, and 60% ZnS. As a comparatively inexpensive white pigment, Lithopone is presently used in various paint formulations, road marking paints, jointing compounds, and putties.
The Evolution and Impact of Anatase Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers