Titanium dioxide particles help light scatter and reflect, Kelly Johnson-Arbor, MD, a medical toxicology physician at the National Capital Poison Center, told Health. Because of that, we often use it as a whitening agent.

This precipitate is not suitable for a pigment until it is filtered, dried, crushed, heated to a high temperature, and quenched in cold water. The second heating in a muffle furnace at 725 C produces crystals of the right optical size.