2. Barite calcination method A solution of barium sulfide is prepared. The sulfuric acid and zinc oxide are reacted, purified by adding potassium permanganate and zinc powder, and compressed to obtain a zinc sulfate solution. Then, the prepared barium sulfide solution is mixed and subjected to a metathesis reaction to obtain a mixture of zinc sulfide and barium sulfate, and then the precipitate is subjected to pressure filtration, calcination, wet grinding, drying, and pulverization to obtain a zinc white product.

In a 2022 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, scientists wanted to examine the effects of titanium dioxide as a food additive on atherosclerosis in mice. (Atherosclerosis refers to a hardening of the arteries.) Researchers fed mice 40 mg/kg of the food additive every day for 4 months, and found that it not only altered gut microbiota but also led to a significantly increased atherosclerotic lesion area, especially in animals that consumed a high-choline western diet (HCD).

In terms of dietary exposure, titanium dioxide is often used in a variety of food categories, including bakery products, soups, broths, sauces, salads, savoury based sandwich spreads and processed nuts. It is also used in confectionary, chewing gum, food supplements and cake icing.

The basic scenario of resistive switching in TiO₂ (Jameson et al., 2007) assumes the formation and electromigration of oxygen vacancies between the electrodes (Baiatu et al., 1990), so that the distribution of concomitant n-type conductivity (Janotti et al., 2010) across the volume can eventually be controlled by an external electric bias, as schematically shown in Figure 1B. Direct observations with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed more complex electroforming processes in TiO₂ thin films. In one of the studies, a continuous Pt filament between the electrodes was observed in a planar Pt/TiO₂/Pt memristor (Jang et al., 2016). As illustrated in Figure 1C, the corresponding switching mechanism was suggested as the formation of a conductive nanofilament with a high concentration of ionized oxygen vacancies and correspondingly reduced Ti³⁺ ions. These ions induce detachment and migration of Pt atoms from the electrode via strong metal–support interactions (Tauster, 1987). Another TEM investigation of a conductive TiO₂ nanofilament revealed it to be a Magnéli phase Ti_nO_2n−1 (Kwon et al., 2010). Supposedly, its formation results from an increase in the concentrations of oxygen vacancies within a local nanoregion above their thermodynamically stable limit. This scenario is schematically shown in Figure 1D. Other hypothesized point defect mechanisms involve a contribution of cation and anion interstitials, although their behavior has been studied more in tantalum oxide (Wedig et al., 2015; Kumar et al., 2016). The plausible origins and mechanisms of memristive switching have been comprehensively reviewed in topical publications devoted to metal oxide memristors (Yang et al., 2008; Waser et al., 2009; Ielmini, 2016) as well as TiO₂ (Jeong et al., 2011; Szot et al., 2011; Acharyya et al., 2014). The resistive switching mechanisms in memristive materials are regularly revisited and updated in the themed review publications (Sun et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2020).

The report provides insights into the landscape of the lithopone industry at the global level. The report also provides a segment-wise and region-wise breakup of the global lithopone industry. Additionally, it also provides the price analysis of feedstocks used in the manufacturing of lithopone, along with the industry profit margins.

Titanium dioxide is used in an enormous range of food products, which can feel jarring when looking at some of its other uses.