Titanium Dioxide (TiO2, Pigment White 6) in Plastics: Grades, Properties and Regulatory Status

Titanium dioxide (TiO2, C.I. Pigment White 6, CAS 13463-67-7) is an inorganic white pigment used in plastics as the opacifier that makes a polymer white and hiding, and as a UV screen in outdoor parts. It reaches the polymer as a powder, a pigment preparation or a white masterbatch, and the ECHA plastic additives mapping records about 5 wt% of it in a finished pigmented part, which raises the first formulation question: which of the two crystal forms, rutile or anatase, does a given process need?

Titanium dioxide is registered under REACH in the 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 tonnes per year band, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is listed for EU food-contact plastics as FCM substance 610 without a specific migration limit, and carries no harmonised EU hazard classification in force since the Court of Justice confirmed the annulment of the Carc. 2 entry on 1 August 2025. Titanium dioxide is one of 83 colorant pages in our directory of plastic additives, each with the same identity, dosage and regulatory fields.

This page states the identity data, separates rutile from anatase in plastics terms, explains the opacity mechanism, gives the dosage per polymer in phr and wt%, describes 6 application areas, sets the grade-selection rule by surface treatment and processing temperature, explains the pinking of white PE and PP, prints the dated regulatory matrix, compares the alternatives and names the producers.

The identity table below carries the values that a purchase specification, a safety data sheet and a food-contact dossier ask for.

What Is Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)?#

Titanium dioxide is the oxide of titanium, TiO2, a white inorganic pigment with a molecular weight of 79.866 g/mol that is insoluble in water and in organic solvents. It is supplied to plastics in two crystal forms, rutile and anatase, and in pigmentary grades whose particles are sized for light scattering rather than for chemical reactivity.

Which material does the name titanium dioxide actually cover in a compounding room? It covers the pigmentary grade in almost every plastics case, about 4.6 million tonnes of which are used each year according to the figure Wikipedia records, and the same oxide with a surface treatment whose level decides the processing window. As the volume leader among white pigments, titanium(IV) oxide anchors the hub on colorants for plastics, which compares every pigment and dye class.

What does Pigment White 6 mean?#

Pigment White 6 is the Colour Index generic name of titanium dioxide, and C.I. 77891 is its Colour Index constitution number, the two identifiers that appear on pigment and masterbatch data sheets instead of the CAS number. The generic name states the colour slot and the application class; the constitution number states the chemistry behind it.

PW6 and 77891 follow the Colour Index (C.I.) pigment names system used on every pigment data sheet, so a masterbatch specification that names PW6 and a chemical specification that names CAS 13463-67-7 describe the same white pigment.

Rutile or anatase: which TiO2 form do plastics use?#

Plastics use rutile titanium dioxide in almost every application, and anatase only where a softer, less abrasive pigment matters, chiefly in fibres and paper. Both the chloride process and the sulfate process make rutile, and Wikipedia records that the sulfate process can be adjusted to make anatase, the softer of the two crystal forms.

The crystal form also decides how the pigment behaves under ultraviolet light. Wikipedia records that nanosized anatase exhibits photocatalytic activity under UV, which is a property of the nanoform rather than of every anatase grade, and pigment-grade material is not sized for it. Rutile titanium dioxide is the volume leader among inorganic pigments for plastics, the class that also covers the iron oxides and the mixed metal oxides.

Why is anatase used in fibres and rutile almost everywhere else?#

Anatase is the softer of the two crystal forms, which is why it is used in fibre and paper applications where pigment hardness would abrade the equipment, while rutile carries the rest of the plastics market. A melt-spinning line pushes polymer through spinneret holes measured in tens of micrometres, so every hard particle in the melt works against the metal it passes.

Hardness here is descriptive, not measured: no abrasion index, no Mohs value and no spinneret-wear figure for either crystal form is established in our source library.

How Does Titanium Dioxide Make Plastic White and Opaque?#

Titanium dioxide makes a plastic white and opaque by scattering visible light: its refractive index is far higher than that of any common polymer, so light entering the part is reflected at each pigment particle instead of passing through. The same scattering delivers the second function of the pigment, the screening of ultraviolet light. Hiding power is reported as opacity, the property the pigment exists to deliver.

Why does particle size decide how white a part looks? Wikipedia gives about 220 nm as the optimal pigment crystal size for maximum reflection of visible light. Crystals far below that size scatter too little, and agglomerates far above it behave as grit rather than as pigment, which is why dispersion quality belongs in the same sentence as the loading. Colour matchers compare white pigments by tinting strength rather than by loading alone.

Three variables decide the hiding power of a titanium-dioxide-pigmented part.

• Refractive-index difference between pigment and polymer: the larger it is, the stronger the scattering.
• Pigment crystal size, with about 220 nm recorded as the optimum for visible light.
• Pigment concentration and dispersion quality, which decide how many scattering centres the loading produces.

No refractive-index value for rutile or anatase is established in our source library, so the first variable stays qualitative here.

How does TiO2 screen UV light in plastics?#

Rutile titanium dioxide works as a UV screen because it absorbs and scatters ultraviolet light at the surface and in the bulk of the part, which is why it appears in the weathering packages of PVC window profiles. Rutile TiO2 belongs with carbon black and zinc oxide among the UV screeners: carbon black, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, the class that protects a polymer physically rather than chemically. Carbon black is the most effective UV screen for PE and PP.

The limit of the mechanism is that a screening pigment protects the bulk behind the pigmented layer and does not interrupt the radical chain in the polymer itself. That job belongs to the chemistry compared on UV stabilizers for plastics, which a weathering package combines with the pigment. No titanium dioxide loading for the UV-protection function is established in our source library, so this page gives no wt% for the UV role.

What Are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Titanium Dioxide?#

Titanium dioxide is a white powder with a melting point of 1843 to 1855 °C (3349 to 3371 °F) that is insoluble in water and in organic solvents, which is why it survives every polymer processing temperature without decomposing. The values below describe the pigment as a substance, not a named commercial grade.

The practical processing limit of a grade is therefore set not by the oxide, which melts above 1843 °C (3349 °F), but by its organic surface treatment, the subject of the grade section below. Density, oil absorption, specific surface area, refractive index and pH are not established in our source library and are left to the grade data sheet.

Which Polymers Use Titanium Dioxide, and at What Dosage?#

Titanium dioxide is used across the whole thermoplastics range, and the level depends on the basis: the ECHA plastic additives mapping puts titanium dioxide at about 5 wt% of the finished part, while a US PVC pressure-pipe compound carries 0.5 to 3.0 phr. The same mapping puts organic pigments at about 2 wt% and a small group, Prussian blue, ultramarine violet and copper chromite black, at about 0.5 wt%, so the white pigment is the heaviest colorant in a formulation.

How do phr values convert to weight percent? Compound recipes for PVC give titanium dioxide in PHR (parts per hundred resin), which converts to weight percent only against the full formulation total: in Appendix C of Plastics Pipe Institute TR-2 (2023), 0.50 phr of titanium dioxide in a 108.03 phr recipe is 0.50 ÷ 108.03, which is 0.46 wt% of the compound. The gap between 0.46 wt% in a pipe wall and about 5 wt% in the ECHA mapping is not a contradiction: an opaque packaging part and a buried pipe ask the pigment for different work.

Titanium dioxide in PVC pipe, profiles and siding#

A US PVC pressure-pipe compound carries 0.5 to 3.0 phr titanium dioxide according to the range composition in Plastics Pipe Institute TR-2 (2023), and the worked example in its Appendix C uses 0.50 phr in a 108.03 phr recipe. That recipe reads PVC 100, heat stabilizer 0.70, paraffin 1.20, PE wax 0.15, calcium carbonate 5.00, titanium dioxide 0.50, pigment 0.03 and calcium stearate 0.45 phr, which puts the filler at ten times the pigment.

The pigment therefore sits inside a package of stabilizer, lubricant and filler of the kind set out under additives for PVC. Vinyl siding uses the same pigment in a different place: the weatherable capstock is up to 25 % of the panel thickness and can include about 10 % titanium dioxide, according to the secondary source our source library records for it.

PVC window profiles use a rutile weathering grade as a typical component of the weathering package, at a formulation-specific level: no sourced phr recipe for an EU window profile is established in our source library. The full pipe recipe is broken down on additives for plastic pipes.

Titanium dioxide in PE and PP through white masterbatch#

PE and PP converters rarely handle titanium dioxide powder: the pigment arrives as a white masterbatch, and the level in the part is the pigment loading of the masterbatch multiplied by the addition rate. Most polyolefin converters buy the pigment as white masterbatch, because a concentrate doses more accurately and keeps dust out of the plant.

Masterbatch in general carries 40 to 65 wt% of active material, with 15 to 80 wt% in extreme cases, and is normally added at 1 to 5 % of the base polymer. That range is general and not specific to white: no white-masterbatch titanium dioxide loading is established in our source library, so the trade rules of thumb are not repeated here. Convert a masterbatch loading and an addition rate into pigment in the finished part with the let-down ratio calculator.

Titanium dioxide in PET and synthetic fibres#

PET uses titanium dioxide in two ways: as the light barrier in white dairy bottles, and as the pigment in fibres, where the softer anatase form is used. Neither use carries an established loading, so this page describes them rather than quantifying them. White dairy bottles are one case inside the wider additive package described under additives for PET resin.

What Is Titanium Dioxide Used For in Plastics? 6 Application Areas#

Titanium dioxide is used in 6 plastics application areas: white masterbatch, opaque packaging, light-barrier white PET dairy bottles, PVC pipe and profiles, vinyl siding, and fibres and nonwovens. The 6 areas are listed below in the order in which the pigment volume reaches them.

• White masterbatch, the concentrate route into PE and PP.
• Opaque packaging, where the pigment hides the contents and carries the print.
• Light-barrier white PET dairy bottles, where it blocks light from the milk.
• PVC pipe and profiles, where colour and weathering meet.
• Vinyl siding, where the pigment concentrates in the capstock layer.
• Fibres and nonwovens, the one area that uses anatase.

White masterbatch and opaque packaging#

White masterbatch is the largest route by which titanium dioxide reaches a plastic part, and opaque packaging is the largest end use of that route. A concentrate is let down into the base polymer at the extruder, which puts the pigment at about 5 wt% of the finished part in the ECHA mapping figure while the converter handles pellets, not powder.

Opaque film asks for slip, antiblock and pigment at the same time, and the three are specified together as set out under additives for packaging film.

Light-barrier white PET dairy packaging#

White PET dairy bottles use titanium dioxide as a light barrier: the pigment blocks the light that would otherwise degrade the milk inside, a function that masterbatch producers such as Ampacet sell as a dedicated light-barrier white. Ampacet lists Safari White as a light-barrier white masterbatch that protects packaged dairy from photodegradation, which is a supplier product claim rather than a measured value.

Light transmission, shelf-life gain and layer thickness for that construction are not established in our source library.

Outdoor profiles, siding and pressure pipe#

Outdoor PVC is the application where the pigment role and the UV-screening role meet: window profiles, siding capstock and pressure pipe all carry rutile titanium dioxide for colour and for weathering at the same time. The weathering grade is the highly treated one, and a siding capstock can include about 10 % titanium dioxide in up to 25 % of the panel thickness, which concentrates the expensive pigment where the sunlight lands.

Weathering packages for profiles and siding are compared under additives for building and construction. Pressure pipe is the quantified case of the three, at 0.5 to 3.0 phr in the PPI TR-2 range composition.

Fibres, nonwovens and paper-like films#

Fibres are the one plastics application where anatase rather than rutile is the normal choice, because the softer crystal form is gentler on spinning equipment. In a filament the pigment also works as a delustrant.

Anatase belongs to the additive set described under additives for synthetic fibres, beside the antistatic agents and stabilizers a melt-spun filament carries. No fibre loading is established in our source library.

How Do TiO2 Grades Differ? Surface Treatment and Processing Temperature#

Titanium dioxide grades differ mainly in their surface treatment, and the trade-off is direct: the lower the treatment level, the higher the processing temperature the grade tolerates, and the more it promotes pinking in a phenolic-antioxidant system. Ampacet states the rule in that order, that the lower the treat level on the titanium dioxide, the more suitable it is for higher temperatures, and its technical FAQ is the source for both thresholds below.

Processing limits are the heat-stability question covered on pigment heat stability, and for titanium dioxide the limit is organic rather than mineral: the oxide melts above 1843 °C (3349 °F), while the treatment layer volatilises in the extruder and causes lensing in film. Compounders should match the treatment level to the highest melt temperature in the process, not to the average.

The EU food-contact entries define their grades by treatment level in the same way, which makes surface treatment a regulatory attribute as well as a processing one. Whether the pigment is actually dispersed, and not merely present, is checked by dispersion testing of pigments and masterbatch.

Which TiO2 grade survives extrusion above 274 °C (525 °F)?#

Only a few titanium dioxide grades are suitable for extrusion processes above 525 °F (274 °C), and they are low-treated rutile grades, because it is the organic surface treatment that volatilises first, not the pigment. The consequence recorded by Ampacet for a treatment that volatilises is lensing in film, small optical defects where the evolved material disturbs the melt.

At the other end, highly treated weathering grades are poor candidates for processing above 450 °F (232 °C). A grade chosen for outdoor durability is therefore the wrong grade for a high-temperature compound.

How Does Titanium Dioxide Interact with Other Additives?#

Titanium dioxide interacts with three additive classes in a white compound: phenolic antioxidants, whose oxidation products it colours; metal stearates, which neutralise those coloured complexes; and the UV stabilizers whose alkalinity aggravates the same reaction. The three interactions are listed below as Ampacet records them in its technical FAQ on yellowing and pinking of white PE and PP.

• Phenolic antioxidants: over-oxidation to quinones, which a low-treated rutile surface turns into coloured complexes (pinking and yellowing).
• Zinc stearate: forms colorless zinc-quinone complexes, the recorded remedy.
• High-pH UV stabilizers: their alkalinity is a recorded aggravating factor.

The reaction partner is the stabilizer of the compound: phenolic antioxidants oxidise to quinones as part of their normal protective chemistry, and Ampacet lists pigment interaction, especially with titanium dioxide, among the recorded discoloration causes for that class. The interaction is a property of the combination rather than a formulation error, and it is managed through the treatment level and the stearate.

Why do white PE and PP parts turn pink or yellow?#

White PE and PP parts turn pink or yellow because the phenolic antioxidant in the compound over-oxidises to quinones, and a low-treated rutile surface turns those quinones into coloured titanium-quinone complexes. Ampacet records the mechanism in its technical FAQ on yellowing and pinking of white PE and PP, the only source in our source library for the chain, so no reaction rate, temperature or concentration is stated here.

Five factors aggravate the reaction, according to the same source.

• Low-treated titanium dioxide, the grade whose surface is least shielded.
• NOx gas fading, the warehouse exposure from combustion gases.
• High pH, contributed by some UV stabilizers.
• Moisture in storage or transport.
• Darkness, which is why the defect appears on stacked and covered parts.

The remedy is a metal soap. Zinc stearate forms colorless zinc-quinone complexes and is the fix recorded for the same chain, which is one reason a white polyolefin compound carries a metal stearate beside its antioxidant. The discoloration is quantified as a yellowness index on ASTM E313.

What Is the Regulatory Status of Titanium Dioxide in Plastics?#

Titanium dioxide is REACH-registered in the 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 tonne band, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is authorised for EU food-contact plastics as FCM substance 610 without a specific migration limit, and has no harmonised EU hazard classification in force (status 24 September 2026). The matrix below states each instrument, the status under it and the date that fixes it.

The registration bands and the duties behind that entry are explained on REACH and plastic additives. Each instrument above answers a different question, which is why a single sentence about the legal status of titanium dioxide is always wrong somewhere.

Is titanium dioxide REACH registered, and is it an SVHC?#

Yes, titanium dioxide is registered under REACH in the 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 tonnes per year band, and no, it is not a Substance of Very High Concern: it is absent from the Candidate List as of 24 September 2026. The band puts the pigment among the highest-tonnage substances on the European market.

Titanium dioxide has never been added to the SVHC Candidate List, and it appears neither on Annex XIV, the authorisation list, nor on Annex XVII, the restriction list. SVHC identification and hazard classification are separate procedures, so the classification history below does not affect these three answers.

Is titanium dioxide allowed in food-contact plastics?#

Yes: titanium dioxide is listed in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 as FCM substance 610 with no specific migration limit, and three surface-treated versions are listed separately as FCM 805, FCM 873 and FCM 1077. FCM 610 carries the reference number 93440, FCM 805 covers a treatment below 1 % w/w, FCM 873 a treatment with up to 2 % w/w octyltriethoxysilane, and FCM 1077 fluoride-modified alumina up to 25.0 % w/w, including the nanoform.

That entry is unusual for a pigment. Colorants as a class sit outside the Union list, so most pigments carry no FCM number at all, and the only colorant-type substances that do are carbon black 411, titanium dioxide 610, 805, 873 and 1077, zinc sulphide 403, iron oxide 409, mica 597, OB-1 422 and BBOT 500. FCM numbers, the Union list and the overall migration limit are explained on EU 10/2011.

In the United States, titanium dioxide is listed in 21 CFR 178.3297, the colorants-for-polymers regulation, together with titanium dioxide-barium sulfate and titanium dioxide-magnesium silicate, with no numeric limit, and again in 21 CFR 177.2600 among the fillers permitted in rubber articles for repeated use. What a 21 CFR listing does and does not mean is set out on FDA food contact rules for plastic additives.

Is titanium dioxide classified as a carcinogen in the EU?#

No: titanium dioxide has no harmonised EU hazard classification in force, because the General Court annulled the Carc. 2 (H351, inhalation) entry of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/217 on 23 November 2022 and the Court of Justice dismissed the appeals against that judgment on 1 August 2025. ECHA removed the entry from its website on 25 August 2025, and the formal deletion from Annex VI of the CLP Regulation is still pending, so a legacy entry remains visible in older copies of Annex VI.

The judgments concerned the classification and the evidence behind it, not a safety verdict on the substance, and they left every other instrument untouched: the food-contact entry, the REACH registration and the Proposition 65 listing all stand as before. The Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers Association records the same procedural chain with the same four dates.

Self-classifications notified to ECHA still vary and include H351, H319 and H335, so supplier safety data sheets do not all agree. A compliance file therefore has to state which classification it reports, the harmonised one that no longer exists or the notified one a given supplier applies.

Is titanium dioxide on California Proposition 65?#

Yes, but only in one physical form: the Proposition 65 list carries "titanium dioxide (airborne, unbound particles of respirable size)" with a cancer endpoint and a listing date of 2 September 2011. The wording of the listing is the operative part, because it names airborne unbound particles of respirable size rather than titanium dioxide as such.

Carbon black is listed in the same words, with the listing date 21 February 2003, which shows that the wording is the standard formula for a pigment powder. Listing dates and the warning logic that follows from a listing, for every pigment on the list, are on California Proposition 65.

Is Titanium Dioxide Safe in Plastics? Health, Safety and Environment#

Every classification and exposure limit that exists for titanium dioxide concerns inhaled powder, not pigment bound in a finished plastic part: IARC places titanium dioxide in Group 2B for inhaled dust, and NIOSH recommends exposure limits of 2.4 mg/m3 for fine and 0.3 mg/m3 for ultrafine titanium dioxide. Both figures come from secondary sources and both are occupational values, addressed to the compounding plant rather than to the end user.

The three facts that define the health position of titanium dioxide in plastics are listed below.

• Classification status: no harmonised EU classification in force after the 1 August 2025 ruling; notified self-classifications still vary (H351, H319, H335).
• Exposure route: inhalation of respirable dust, which is why the Proposition 65 entry of 2 September 2011 reads "airborne, unbound particles of respirable size".
• Occupational limits: the NIOSH recommended exposure limits of 2.4 mg/m3 fine and 0.3 mg/m3 ultrafine, both for airborne powder.

How an inhalation hazard of a powder differs from an additive bound in an article is discussed on toxic plastic additives, and that distinction is the whole question here: the exposure the classifications address happens where the powder is weighed, blended and conveyed. Our source library holds no migration study, no LD50, no NOAEL and no data on nanoparticle release from a finished part, so none of those is stated here. Dust control and respiratory protection in the compounding room are the practical safety subject.

What Are the Alternatives to Titanium Dioxide?#

Titanium dioxide has no full replacement as a white pigment: the alternatives recorded for plastics are zinc sulfide (Pigment White 7) as a partial substitute, and calcium carbonate and barium sulfate as extenders that reduce the amount of titanium dioxide needed rather than replace it. The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 names ground calcium carbonate, precipitated calcium carbonate, kaolin and talc as the substitutes for titanium dioxide as a white pigment, which is the same extender logic at market level.

Every other white in the class is compared on the inorganic pigment page, which sets zinc sulfide, the iron oxides and the mixed metal oxides beside each other.

TiO2 vs zinc sulfide (Pigment White 7)#

Zinc sulfide is the one alternative white pigment recorded for plastics: it is listed for EU food contact as FCM 403 and capped at 10 % under 21 CFR 178.3297, a numeric limit that titanium dioxide does not carry. The comparison is therefore regulatory rather than optical: no hiding power, refractive index or tinting-strength value for either white is established in our source library.

In plastics, zinc sulfide (Pigment White 7) is the partial substitute recorded, and it carries its own zinc limit in the EU food-contact system.

TiO2 vs calcium carbonate and barium sulfate as extenders#

Calcium carbonate and barium sulfate are extenders rather than substitutes: a US PVC pressure-pipe compound carries 5.00 phr calcium carbonate beside 0.50 phr titanium dioxide, because the filler contributes bulk and the pigment contributes whiteness. The ten-to-one ratio in that PPI TR-2 recipe shows the division of labour: calcium carbonate in plastics contributes bulk, stiffness and cost reduction, not hiding power.

Barium sulfate plays the same extender role at a higher density, 4.25 to 4.5 g/cm3, which makes it useful where mass matters alongside the white. Barium sulfate in plastics is listed among the colorants for polymers in 21 CFR 178.3297 and among the fillers permitted in repeat-use rubber articles in 21 CFR 177.2600.

Who Manufactures Titanium Dioxide? Grades and Suppliers#

Titanium dioxide for plastics comes from a small group of producers: Chemours (Ti-Pure), Tronox, Kronos, Venator, LB Group (Lomon Billions) and Pangang. Ti-Pure is the only brand line recorded in our source library, so every other grade name has to come from the supplier rather than from this page.

Brand and grade names other than Ti-Pure are not recorded in our source library; ask the supplier for the current grade list.

Plant locations and grade portfolios are in the directory of titanium dioxide manufacturers and suppliers.

Buyers should ask each supplier for the surface-treatment level of the grade, its highest recommended processing temperature and its food-contact statement, because those three answers decide whether a grade fits a line before any colour trial starts.

Price drivers, ore costs and grade premiums are tracked on titanium dioxide price rather than here.

How Does Titanium Dioxide Sit in the Wider Pigment Picture?#

Titanium dioxide is the largest pigment in the world by volume, with about 4.6 million tonnes of pigmentary titanium dioxide used each year, and plastics is its second market after paints. World titanium dioxide production exceeded 9 million tonnes in 2014, and the same secondary source records that titanium dioxide is used in two-thirds of all pigments.

Its share of the pigments for plastic market is larger than that of the organic pigment classes, and the USGS records the leading US uses in descending order as paints, plastics and paper. The sections below answer the questions that arrive from outside that context.

Is the EU E171 food ban relevant to plastics?#

No: the EU decision on E171 withdrew the authorisation of titanium dioxide as a food additive, which is the pigment eaten in a sweet or a tablet, and it left the food-contact status of titanium dioxide in plastics unchanged at FCM 610. A food additive is swallowed as part of the food; a food-contact additive sits in the packaging wall and is governed by Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, which still lists titanium dioxide as FCM 610 with no SML.

The separate EU classification question was closed by the courts, with the annulment of the Carc. 2 entry on 23 November 2022 and the dismissal of the appeals on 1 August 2025. In the United States, titanium dioxide remains listed in 21 CFR 178.3297 for polymers, while the FDA separately reviews it as a direct food colour additive following a colour additive petition filed on 14 April 2023 and under review since 4 March 2024. Food and plastics are not the same question, and this page answers only the plastics one.

Titanium dioxide capacity, production and trade#

World titanium dioxide pigment capacity is about 9.9 million tonnes a year, of which China holds 6.0 million tonnes and the United States 1.36 million tonnes, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. The United Kingdom holds 165,000 tonnes a year in the same estimate, and US production was about 1.0 million tonnes in 2025 against 940,000 tonnes in 2024.

Chemours and Tronox also appear among the largest plastic additive companies. US imports between 2021 and 2024 came 45 % from Canada, 11 % from China, 7 % from Germany and 7 % from Mexico.

Tariff lines by additive are listed under plastic additive trade, and the titanium dioxide lines are in the last question below.

What is the difference between pigment-grade TiO2 and TiO2 nanomaterials?#

Pigment-grade titanium dioxide is sized for light scattering, at about 220 nm, while nanomaterial grades are an order of magnitude smaller and behave differently: nanosized anatase shows photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet light. EU food-contact law already distinguishes the two, because FCM 1077 names the nanoform of the surface-treated pigment explicitly while FCM 610 covers the pigment itself.

Particle-size distributions, migration data and toxicology for the nanoform are not established in our source library, so this page states the size difference and the legal distinction only.

What is another name for titanium dioxide?#

Titanium dioxide is also called titanium(IV) oxide, titania and titanium white, and in the plastics trade it appears as C.I. Pigment White 6 (PW6), C.I. 77891, rutile or anatase. The name E171 belongs to the food-additive use of the same oxide and is not used for plastics grades.

Does titanium dioxide have an HS code?#

Yes: titanium dioxide pigment containing 80 % or more TiO2 enters the United States under HTS 3206.11.0000 at 6 % ad valorem, while unfinished titanium dioxide enters under 2823.00.0000 at 5.5 %. Other titanium dioxide pigments enter under HTS 3206.19.0000, also at 6 %, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. These are US tariff lines, not the EU or global classification.