Types and applications of zinc oxide

Zinc oxide, also known as zinc white, is a pure white powder composed of amorphous or needle-like small particles. As a basic chemical raw material, it has a wide range of applications in industries such as rubber electronics, medicine, and coatings. Zinc oxide is mainly divided into direct process zinc oxide, indirect process zinc oxide, and calcined zinc oxide.

Feature

As a white pigment, zinc oxide is pure white in color. Its tinting strength and hiding power are not as good as those of lithopone and titanium dioxide. However, it has a significant price advantage over rutile titanium dioxide, and it is resistant to pulverization, with good lightfastness, heat resistance, and weatherability, making it suitable for exterior wall coatings. Its usage has been increasing year by year, replacing some titanium dioxide. In addition, zinc oxide can react with trace amounts of fatty acids to form zinc soap, which also has the function of making the paint film tough and impermeable, preventing metal corrosion.

Type and purpose

In the design of coating formulations, indirect method zinc oxide can provide designers with many high-performance coating formulations. Indirect method zinc oxide also exhibits excellent mold resistance and efficacy in controlling microbial fungi, and can enhance the weather resistance and anti-chalking ability of the coating film. Generally speaking, ceramic and tank coatings require zinc oxide with small particle size and high purity.

Indoor paints and latex coatings often use needle-like direct zinc oxide to increase their oil absorption value and improve suspension performance.

Directly produced zinc oxide and indirectly produced zinc oxide are two substances with different applications, and cannot be directly compared. The comparison between them can only be truly made based on their intended use in specific products.

Actually, the two types of zinc oxide each have their own applications, basically forming two parallel lines.

Direct method zinc oxide is used in various industries such as ceramics, frits, color glazes (pigments), cables, rubber, glass, enamel, petroleum, and chemical engineering.

Indirect zinc oxide is used in various industries such as EVA foam products, rubber, coatings, pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering, the automotive industry, and light industry. It serves as a white pigment for printing and dyeing, paper making, matches, and the pharmaceutical industry. In the rubber industry, it is used as a vulcanizing activator, reinforcing agent, and coloring agent for natural rubber, synthetic rubber, and latex. It is also used in the manufacture of pigments such as zinc chrome yellow, zinc acetate, zinc carbonate, and zinc chloride. Additionally, it is used in the production of electronic laser materials, phosphors, feed additives, catalysts, magnetic materials, and more.