Titanium dioxide: “Optimisation has long been a salient conversation”

Could you please describe the method?

Tony Margani: For the last century, titanium dioxide remains the immutable material in paints and coatings. Naturally occurring and without a synthetic substitute, its opacifying effects are irreplaceable [whiteness and refractive index value]. Paradoxically, these same benefits produce negative outcomes in both economy and environment through high cost in formula and carbon footprint intensity. Rooted in traditional formulaic solutions unable to control the effect of diminishing returns that titanium dioxide inherently yields, chemists can only load so much before the benefit to cost ratio becomes untenable.

A new technology in advanced light scattering and Tio2 optimisation, generates a novel universal coatings system for multiple substrates and market segments. Coined “Self-Build Technology” this method maximises efficiency to the core utility of paints and coatings [opacity] under which all sub – utilities and benefits reside. It uses an exclusive ‘mechanism of action’ at point of standard application wherein paint molecules compound onto themselves like magnetic anchors in real-time, yielding equivalent or better film build [and all typical required results] of multiple coats from traditional coatings, but without ever the need of a primer or a second coat.

While traditional coatings are good at and focus on adhesion to a surface for improved core performance, they shift, move and wash around before drying to an incomplete finish. This is followed by layering additional coats, repeating the application process until unconditional opacity is achieved wherein all peripheral benefits of a full system then fall effortlessly in line [sheen, texture, colour and durability]. This is the convention of using coatings. Important to note that the only uncontrollable component of a coating’s purpose is opacity, and this is because it cannot be tamed in formulation using current methods.

The concept asks the question – “if conclusive opacity [the hallmark of knowing when to stop painting] is realised through a user’s typical labor – multiple coats layered onto each other but over the time of a traditional coating’s application process, [painting and drying, painting and drying, etc…], how can these layers and therefore complete results be achieved in real time?”

An extension of the originating thought experiment was to refer to the optical behavior of sodium chloride [NaCl] under purposeful manipulation. In its static position, NaCl maintains a refractive index of 1.54, which when observed through even the most basic objective lens of a microscope would clearly display its true transparent nature. But when many grains of NaCl are clumped together the material is now opaque. So much so that placed on top a drastic color base, light cannot penetrate through the sodium particles to the underlying colour and scatters the same way it does through sufficient film build from opacity on a substrate. More impressively, the latter is using Tio2 that maintains a refractive index of 2.61 and yet still requires multiple coats to perform using traditional formulaic approaches.

This innovative method uses thin film building to achieve opacity by not only adhering to the surface but also to itself through an exploitation of outdated surface tension techniques. Achieved in production through a shearing effect, paint molecules become “magnetised” by a distinct treatment and sequencing of raw materials relative to each chemical packet [additives, pigments, water, binders/resins] that abrade with sensitive but proven mixing processes. In spite of this exclusive result, 90% of all raw materials in the system are used by manufacturers around the world with typical equipment requirements both in production and lab. This method uses two thirds less titanium dioxide yet achieves two – and three-times opacity of any traditional architectural coating.

What’s the current status?

Margani: The “Self-Build Technology” has been transferred into seven architectural coatings serving their specific market segments. These product systems range from interior and exterior decorative, new construction, industrial and commercial coatings. More recently, through arguably the largest field test in history, over 150,000 gallons were produced, marketed and sold through traditional channels in North America and internationally. With over 15,000 unique end users, the system has proven successful in a wide range of geography, user type and practical real-life conditions.

The purpose of these measures is to de-risk the technology and prove large scale market sized batches can be produced. That the raw materials can be sourced with consistency and most importantly that the varied customer base of traditional coatings through distribution, retail and end user type not only welcome these results but have come to expect them.

Nobilis continues to transfer the technology into additional product systems, growing the platform to serve additional market segments. A full technical report is being prepared for international trade presentations as Tio2 is the cornerstone of the entire $235B USD annual global paints and coatings market, responsible for 50% consumption of all Tio2.

How do you see the potential impact of the new method with regard to the reliance of the coatings’ industry on titanium dioxide?

Margani: This novel method has the opportunity to be a resolution in off setting as much Tio2 in coatings as is currently possible. This simple shift in system approach could solve the economic and environmental image of an entire industry that cannot formulate around its effects.

Optimisation has long been a salient conversation. What began as discussion among those in the trade on formulaic technique at the raw material level, is now inclusive of varied stakeholders with a vested interest in the practical influences of Tio2 through the supply value chain. This is where the novel method has its real impact.

In October 2017, at the outset of the European attempt to classify Tio2 as a Carcinogenic Category 1B, the EC Journal published Titanium Dioxide: Ruling opacity out of existence? A seminal article of a theoretical study performed by chemists at Akzo Nobel on the industry’s reliance on irreplaceable Tio2. They demonstrated this by using Zinc, which is considered the next best material. The result required many more coats or layers to achieve equivalency.

This study further illustrates the formulaic approaches, many through industry collaboration, that have not succeeded in maximising the potential of Tio2 for opacity, including attempts as adjusting viscosity, rheology, dry time, increased solids, 2k systems, saturated tints used at point of sale, particle sizing and spacing, synthetic polymers that in fact provide similar or worse opacity.

Through this potential impact, what are the sustainability implications on the supply value chain and peripheral or adjacent industries that rely on paints and coatings?

Margani: Sustainability used to be about VOC control and that took a generation to trickle down through industry before the end user began to understand its value. Today, the environmental conversation hinges on carbon footprint and wastes and does so among the most educated and awake consumer base in history as it pertains to aligning environmental image and goals with the paints and coatings they purchase.

Synonymous with how manufacturers maintain their public image on sustainability, top producers like Hempel base their entire environmental message on concepts like “Detaching growth from our environmental footprint”. And while this notion supports the reality that the most environmentally-friendly coating can only be the one you use the least of, there isn’t a palette of products in the market currently that supports this distant future desire of global coatings manufacturers.

A precursor to modern day marketing for the “greenest image money can buy” is what governments used to promote as the Extended Producers Responsibility System or EPRS. In its infancy it was an attempt to curb post-consumer wastes, which grew to become an initiative by manufacturers to run the costly and fledgling reuse and recycling system using a consumer financed model of eco-fees. But when looked at through the lens of the new technology and its controls over Tio2 and therefore the entire carbon footprint of the global industry, EPRS can revive a somewhat forgotten inclination to not only control wastes after end user consumption but before it, from the point of raw material extraction.

The implication of this control over the systemic hyper problem that is Tio2 goes well beyond a single raw material. For if we control Tio2 then we control all materials that orbit around this core ingredient. Like the planets in our solar system around its sun. By reducing Tio2 to the minimum required as per this novel method, the simplification of the supply chain occurs naturally, and all peripheral materials and necessary key resources in additives, resin, water, fillers, energy, transport with its emissions and containers with its packaging, automatically reduce to their minimum. That is the power of this particular control. That it can actually shrink supply chain consumption in all excesses and prevent maximum life-cycle wastes before they begin. This is the path to real climate tech coatings.

As importantly then are the sustainable implications for all adjacent industries and customers of paints and coatings. By giving them the gift of a minimised eco-footprint as added incentive, we can approach environmental stewardship unlike the past. We cannot expect customers to pay more to be eco-friendly but rather should reclaim the responsibility of achieving this on their behalf. This is the only way forward for sustainability, by actually connecting it with innovation sincerely.

As it stands, all stakeholders in the coatings industry, are seemingly held hostage by the need for Tio2 while at the same time being challenged by consumers and environmental agencies to be sustainable. More incredibly, Chemours, one of the significant Tio2 producers on the market has been actively engaging their customer base by promoting the message that using less Tio2 is better for the environment even at their expense. And Arkema Specialty Materials in holding conferences on supply chain sustainability is taking the lead in the conversation within their tier. But unless the industry can hedge against Tio2 using a real life substitute the discussion will be met with impediment.

Using the new method, is it possible to maintain the performance of the coating while lowering the titanium dioxide content?

Margani: It is possible to reduce the content of Tio2, even this drastically without compromise to the health of the coating’s system. And in many metrics, compared to traditional requirements in both formula and practical use, the method improves upon industry standards.

This is because the “mechanism of action” at point of application acts as a counterpoint to the absence of excess Tio2 and yields peripheral benefits beyond apex opacity. The system profile can be described as a common water-based single component, but with extreme durability and scrub counts approaching 10,000 on the ASTM D2486. It is a non-viscous product in the 85ku range with ease of flow and application despite approaching solids of 70%. It is no odor with very low voc and non spatter that can be produced in multiple sheens. Most intriguingly is the tint system. There is one tint base that acts as white and can be tinted down to deep medium tones [85 – 90% of all color sales] and there is a base for accent colors. The method accepts any tints and matches any color. Compared to the SKU matrix and costly proprietary tint systems of any other product line, some up to seven tint bases, this simplification is further argument towards real practical sustainability through the supply value chain.

To maintain and improve performance, the method had to be adaptable to industry’s current infrastructure by way of how manufacturers produce and how users consume paints and coatings for it to be adopted.

In closing I reference an article in the EC Journal from October 2012 – Innovating for the future: “Transformational thinking” where the paper by the same name written by George Pilcher of the ChemQuest Group highlights the simple fact that paints and coatings, with the exception of the move from oil to latex in the 1950’s, haven’t changed in a century. No coincidence that this is a timeline shared with the advent of Tio2 refinement and mainstream use in coatings. The paper continues to strengthen the ideal that for the industry to truly innovate, it must not do so gradually but rather act on a spark through transformational thinking that has the power to change how we look at coatings and processes forever. In doing so we can recalibrate the relationship between people and paint.