16 августа, 2015 
Pokraskin Gunter Buxbaum
In 2005 the world production of inorganic pigments was approximately 6 million tonnes, representing a value of about $14 billions. For high performance pigment applications the market in paints and coatings is of special interest and was estimated at 2.4 million tonnes representing a value of about $5.6 billions. Some years ago the British Color Makers Association estimated the economic value of downstreamed colored industrial products using inorganic pigments at about the 80-fold of the pigment value.
In writing an introductory chapter to colored Inorganic High Performance Pigments, one is faced with a definitional dilemma, as the term “high performance pigment’ is more usually met with in organic rather than inorganic literature. Cost alone is not the determining factor, otherwise the natural semiprecious stone lapis lazuli would have to be included, with its deep blue characteristics. One of the problems with high performance inorganic pigments is the limitation in available chemistry, so that very few really new compounds have been developed in recent decades.
Most inorganic pigment applications have thus been achieved by the well — known “workhorses” of conventional pigments, but the economic pressures of the last decade have dictated two main directions for product development: on the one hand an economization of existing pigment manufacture, in line with world price competition, and on the other hand, discovery and development of “new” and “improved” inorganic pigments with higher performing characteristics. Even in the more “commodity” or conventional inorganics such as chrome yellow, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, and carbon black, incrementally improved performance is required, e. g., in dust free preparations for the construction industry.
A third development started earlier. Driven by national laws and regulations in the ecological and toxicological area, “sustainable development’ and substitution pressures have resulted in the replacement of formerly well known, and highly recommended inorganic pigments, such as red lead, lead molybdate, and chrome orange, by more “environmentally friendly” or less toxic substances, which can surely be considered as “high performance” pigments.
Finally, in the field of “functional pigments” such as corrosion inhibiting or optically variable types, the development of “high performance” types has been necessary.
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