Opaque Polymers as Alternatives to TiO2 Pigment for Making White Aqueous Graphic Arts Inks, PaperCon 2014

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TiO2 prices is a substantial increase, which means shrinking margins for ink manufacturers (1). In light of a severe increase in the price of TiO2 in 2012, it would be prudent to explore alternative routes to making white inks in a way that would deliver on performance at a lower cost with the benefit of price stability. Synthetic opaque polymers are designed to deliver opacity through the difference in the refractive index of their polymeric shell and air void core. In this work we studied the graphic arts ink formulation space containing TiO2 pigment, an opaque polymer, and a binder. The opaque polymer was found to deliver opacity efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. This approach lowered the overall cost of an ink formula through partial replacement of TiO2 with the opaque polymer. In the case of ink formulations below the critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC), three to four pigment volume concentration (PVC) of the opaque polymer was required to replace one PVC of TiO2, and for inks above the CPVC (e.g. paper and board inks) replacing one PVC of TiO2 with one PVC of the opaque polymer delivered the same opacity at a lower cost.