The biological activity, biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance of implants depend primarily on titanium dioxide (TiO₂) film on biomedical titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V). This research is aimed at getting an ideal temperature range for forming a dense titanium dioxide (TiO₂) film during titanium alloy cutting. This article is based on Gibbs free energy, entropy changes, and oxygen partial pressure equations to perform thermodynamic calculations on the oxidation reaction of titanium alloys, studies the oxidation reaction history of titanium alloys, and analyzes the formation conditions of titanium dioxide. The heat oxidation experiment was carried out. The chemical composition was analyzed with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results revealed that titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is the main reaction product on the surface below 900°C. Excellent porous oxidation films can be obtained between 670°C and 750°C, which is helpful to improve the bioactivity and osseointegration of implants.

In a small study published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2020, researchers examined the effects of several food additives, including titanium dioxide, along with artificial sweeteners and cleaning products by testing the fecal samples of 13 people. Titanium dioxide was among the samples that “induced significant shifts in microbiome community structure.”  The growth of the bacterium species belonging to C. leptum, which has been shown to decrease in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, “significantly decreased in the presence of … titanium dioxide” among other additives and sweeteners tested.

The precipitation of titanium dioxide involves the reaction of titanium sulfate with an alkaline solution to form titanium hydroxide, which is then calcined to produce titanium dioxide. The precipitation process is crucial for achieving the desired particle size distribution, crystallinity, and purity of the final product.

Below are selected applications of photocatalytic pollutant decomposition processes on titanium oxide:
1. Self-cleaning surfaces: for the production of glass for spotlights, traffic lights, car mirrors, window panes, for road paints, for covering sound-absorbing screens and tunnel walls.
2. Air cleaning and odor removal: filters that are used in enclosed spaces (e.g. public toilets) or filters for air-conditioning equipment.
3. Water treatment: groundwater treatment installations, water purification installations in the intakes of drinking water from rivers.
4. Self-disinfecting materials: towels, linings, clothing, equipment in hospitals, wall surfaces of operating rooms.
5. Removal of lesions: anti-cancer therapy.

The applications in which it can be used are paints, inks, plastics, elastomers, paper, fillers, adhesives… 

A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2019 sought to examine the effects of titanium dioxide on intestinal inflammation. Researchers did this by feeding rats titanium dioxide nanoparticles and found that, after the course of two to three months, the animals had lower body weights and induced intestinal inflammation. The researchers also found the nanoparticles altered gut microbiota composition and aggravated chronic colitis. The rats also experienced reduced populations of CD4+T cells (which are cells that help organize immune responses by prompting other immune cells to fight infection), regulatory T cells, and white blood cells in mesenteric lymph nodes. The researchers wrote: “Dietary TiO2 nanoparticles could interfere with the balance of the immune system and dynamic of gut microbiome, which may result in low-grade intestinal inflammation and aggravated immunological response to external stimulus, thus introducing potential health risk.”

pedia, the free encyclopedia

Over the last several years, nanoparticles have come under scrutiny for adverse health effects. Nanoparticles are ultrafine particles between 1 to 100 nanometers in diameter. (To put this in perspective, the average human hair is around 80,000 nanometers thick.) Because of their size, which can be engineered and manipulated at the atomic or molecular level, nanoparticles exhibit unique physical, chemical, and biological properties. Titanium dioxide is one of the most commonly produced nanoparticles in the world.

Description:

In 2022, a year after the EFSA recommended against the use of E171, the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) conducted its own reassessment of titanium dioxide as a food additive. The agency concluded that titanium dioxide was indeed safe to use as a food additive. The United Kingdom and Canada came to similar conclusions.

Lithopone is produced by coprecipitation of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide. Most commonly coprecipitation is effected by combining equimolar amounts of zinc sulfate and barium sulfide:

This route affords a product that is 29.4 wt % ZnS and 70.6 wt % BaSO₄. Variations exist, for example, more ZnS-rich materials are produced when zinc chloride is added to the mixture of zinc sulfate and barium sulfide.^[1]

Relative to a lot of other things that people should be concerned about, titanium dioxide in my mind, is really low on the list. I would be more worried about some substitutes that people are using for titanium dioxide that don't have decades of research associated with it, said Westerhoff.