Zicronium Silicate/Zicronium Dioxide PW12

Thanks Brian! Want to know if it’s a good alternative to Titanium, Lead and Zinc and if it’s a good pigment for painting best practices

Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) Colour Index: Pigment White 12 / 77990 According to some sources (one I have cited below), zirconium dioxide or zircon white, has been completely substituted by titanium dioxide. It is used, with other substances, for the adulteration of titanium dioxide to improve the fastness properties of rutile. However, this was written about pigments used in plastics and may not be true for coatings. It has not found much use in coatings, but rather small use in plastics and greater application in ceramics. Albrecht Müller, Coloring of Plastics: Fundamentals, Colorants, Preparations. p. 68–77.

One more comment about zircon white, it has a refractive index of 2.4, so it has nearly the same R.I. as anatase titanium dioxide (2.55), and greater R.I. than lead white (2.1). so it is a fairly “opaque” pigment. There is very little information about its properties in paint, but rather its use in industrial ceramics. There is one study that I know cites it use as a pigments for spacecraft coatings: “Study of zirconium dioxide white pigment for space environment.” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1972), pp. 103-106.