The State owned Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd has developed titanium dioxide nano particles that have a wide range of applications.

According to company officials, production of the nano particles employs innovative and environment-friendly technology and the market price of nano pigments are nearly ten times the price of titanium dioxide pigments.

The research and development wing of KMML which developed the nano particles technology is planning to set up a pilot plant with an annual capacity of 10 tonnes.

The particle size of nano titanium dioxide manufactured worldwide varies from 20 to 50 nanometres. The individual particles are not visible to naked eye, while agglomerates of particles are visible. At the same time, pigmentory titanium dioxide has particle size in the range of 250 and 350 nanometres.

The pigmentory titanium dioxide absorbs ultra violet light and reflects visible light, while the nano particles not only reflects visible light, but effectively transmit visible wave length through the crystals. The officials said that the nano titanium dioxide was especially useful for automotive coatings when used with pigments like aluminium flakes, which is the most widely used pigment in automobile industry for imparting a metallic look to coatings.

(Source from Business Line)