Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a naturally occurring oxide of the metal titanium.  It has the highest refractive index, which means it has excellent light scattering capabilities. Titanium dioxide also hardly absorbs visible light. That is why the human eyes sees the particles as white. When ground into a fine powder, titanium dioxide transforms into an incredibly useful and multi-purpose pigment that provides white color. This powdered pigment form makes use of titanium dioxide’s excellent light-scattering properties in applications that require white opacity and brightness.

Titanium dioxide has two main crystal structure: rutile
and anatase. The rutile crystal form exhibits better durability than the
anatase, making rutile a better choice for pigments requiring weatherability
and lightfastness. Rutile TiO2 produces higher opacity and greater scattering
power than anatase pigments since the rutile crystal has a higher index of refraction.
However, anatase TiO2 is less abrasive than rutile.  Both rutile and anatase are commonly used in
the white pigmentation of almost
anything in our everyday life. 

As one of the whitest material, titanium dioxide is the most widely used white pigment in the world. In fact, most surfaces and items that are white, and even any color with lighter shades, contain titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is an inorganic pigment that used to provide whiteness and brightness in a wide variety of applications including:

• paints and coatings
• printing inks
• plastics
• paper

and many other commercial products.