Activation Process for Industrial Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate Powder
Discussion on the Activation Process of Industrial Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate Powder
Applications of Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate Powder in Industry:
Ultrafine calcium carbonate powder, owing to its high whiteness, can serve as a structural filler in products, enhancing their hardness and improving surface gloss and smoothness; it can also substitute for expensive white pigments.
Ultrafine calcium carbonate powder can be used as a filler in cosmetics, soaps, facial cleansers, and children’s toothpaste. In industry, it serves as an important component of culture media and a calcium-source additive, functioning as a buffering agent in microbial fermentation and being employed in the production of antibiotics. It also exhibits certain pharmacological activities in analgesics and gastrointestinal medications.
In addition, the higher the oil absorption value of ultrafine calcium carbonate powder, the better its wettability and reinforcing effect on rubber. Application studies have shown that, among ultrafine calcium carbonate powders with different crystal forms, chain-like ultrafine calcium carbonate exhibits superior reinforcing performance in rubber.
The plastics industry is one of the largest consumers of ultrafine calcium carbonate powder in China and represents a sector where application technologies are well established. Ultrafine calcium carbonate powder delivers significant benefits, including increasing the volume of plastic products, reducing costs, enhancing stability, hardness, and rigidity, improving processing performance, boosting heat resistance, refining light scattering properties, enhancing the scratch resistance and smoothness of heavy-grade calcium carbonate, as well as toughening notched impact strength and controlling viscosity during compounding.
The dry coating process for activated calcium carbonate tends to produce large coated particles. From the perspective of conventional activation analysis, it is difficult to assess the packaging state of ultrafine particles at the microscopic level. However, when the secondary particles formed during dry coating are subjected to strong shear forces, the surface coating is prone to cracking, allowing the inert fine particles within the coating layer to enter the dispersed phase. This reduces the dispersibility and compatibility with the resin, potentially leading to “white spots” in the final product and compromising product quality.
Wet-chemical activation of precipitated calcium carbonate involves surface activation of CaCO₃ particles in a liquid phase (aqueous solution). Compared with the gas phase, CaCO₃ particles disperse more readily in the liquid phase; moreover, the addition of dispersants further enhances dispersion. The polar surfaces of CaCO₃ particles can effectively adsorb nonpolar organic molecules from the liquid phase, thereby reducing the solid–liquid interfacial energy. When the particles adsorb low-surface-energy organic compounds, their surface energy decreases, leading to uniform dispersion in the liquid phase and, consequently, uniform surface adsorption.
That concludes our explanation. Does everyone understand? If you’d like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you in the next episode.
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