Characterization of structures and properties of TiO2 powders

Industrial grade titanium dioxide powders of different producers were tested. Composition analysis using X-ray fluorescence and Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy was applied. It showed that two of six tested powders have a high amount of CaCO3 impurities. Scanning electron microscopy was used to show the structure of the particles and allowed to find primary particle size distribution. A small angle light scattering technique was used to obtain the fractal dimension of aggregates and agglomerates. Values of zeta potential were obtained to estimate repulsive forces. Attractive Van der Waals forces were determined and using the literature model, the tensile strength of agglomerates was calculated. The total tensile strength of agglomerates was in the range from 3.50 Pa to 49.84 Pa. The lowest tensile strength was evaluated for Powder P-B, which is characterized by the largest aggregate size. The method presented in this work to characterize titanium dioxide powders can be used in the breaking process using population balance techniques. [Display omitted] •A comprehensive method to characterize industrial TiO2 powders is presented.•Useful method to characterize the composition, size and cluster structure.•Useful method to characterize the fractal dimension and inter-particle forces.•The determination of the tensile strengths of agglomerates is presented.•The proposed method can be useful for modeling particle cluster fragmentation.