Sail making machine

Sensors

This article discusses the discovery of phosphorescent lithopone on watercolor drawings by American artist John La Farge dated between 1890 and 1905 and the history of lithopone in the pigment industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite having many desirable qualities for use in white watercolor or oil paints, the development of lithopone as an artists’ pigment was hampered by its tendency to darken in sunlight. Its availability to, and adoption by, artists remain unclear, as colormen's trade catalogs were generally not explicit in describing white pigments as containing lithopone. Further, lithopone may be mistaken for lead white during visual examination and its short-lived phosphorescence can be easily missed by the uninformed observer. Phosphorescent lithopone has been documented on only one other work-to-date: a watercolor by Van Gogh. In addition to the history of lithopone's manufacture, the article details the mechanism for its phosphorescence and its identification aided by Raman spectroscopy and spectrofluorimetry.

While lithopone and anatase titanium white gained traction between the 1920s and 1950s, by the advent of the First World War, rutile titanium white had started to overshadow them. Their significance in the artist’s palette has since dwindled, and their use as an artist’s pigment is currently nearly obsolete.

Lithopone Market Outlook - 2020–2027

Pigmentary TiO₂ particles are approximately 200-350nm in dimension and this form accounts for 98 percent of total production. It is used mainly for light scattering and surface opacity applications. It is used as a base for various colour paints or as a standalone ‘brilliant’ white.

Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest revenue share in 2019. China and India are the key markets in the region that have a growing paint and plastics industry, owing to rise in urbanization and industrial developments such as in automotive and construction domains. 

One of the key responsibilities of titanium dioxide manufacturers is to produce high-quality products that meet the stringent requirements of their customers. This involves carefully sourcing raw materials, employing efficient production processes, and conducting rigorous quality control measures to ensure that the final product meets the necessary specifications.

In a review published in 2022 in the journal Archives of Toxicology, researchers found that the ingestion of E171 is a “a definite health risk for consumers and their progeny.” After reviewing dozens of in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro studies on the toxicity of E171, the researchers wrote that two facts must be noted: “First, reprotoxicity studies show that animals of both sexes are impacted by the toxicity of these nanoparticles, underlining the importance of conducting in vivo studies using both male and female animals. Second, human exposure begins in utero via maternal-fetal transfer and continues after birth by breastfeeding. Children are then chronically re-exposed due to their food preferences. To be relevant to the human in vivo situation, experimental studies should therefore consider nanoparticle exposure with respect to the age or life period of the studied population.”