Colorant for plastic has extremely important applications, not only in the plastics industry but also in many other industries. This is undoubtedly undisputed. But do you know what colorant for plastic is made of? What properties must they have to produce the best quality plastic products?
How colorant for plastic was used to make plastic masterbatch?
In most industries, especially those related to people’s daily consumption needs, the colorant for plastic is extremely important because it will directly affect the beauty of the finished products. Since then, they indirectly dominate the decision of consumers in buying products and the ability of producers to earn profits.
Color masterbatch is a functional product in the plastic industry created by blending colorants into the base resin, adding some other additives and fillers. This product can be used directly to create other plastic products but often they will be used as colorants in the production of plastics. Color products in colored plastic beads are the most important component, accounting for 20-75%.
Which standards the colorant for plastic must meet?
In general, colorant for plastic, due to their different origins (organic or organic) and different purposes that they are used for, include small pigments particles that are finely crushed and ground into a very small size (usually molecular size) which let them to be able to easily disperse into any substrate and create colorful appearance for that material.
The size of the pigment particle has a great influence on the color visibility of colored masterbatch plastic. The size of the colored molecules must be extremely small, ranging from 0.01 to 1 µm (10-6 m) to be able to produce good dispersion results. The smaller the color molecule, the darker and clearer the color is. For example, when using carbon black, the average size of these molecules is between 50 and 200 nm. Larger molecules, about 0.5 µm, will make the grain gray instead of black.
In addition to ensuring the standard size, the colorants used to produce color masterbatch must also meet the standards regarding color stability, high temperature and extreme weather resistance. In addition, they also need suitable chemical and physical properties to combine with many different primary resins.
Types of colorant for plastic used in producing color masterbatch
The colorant for plastic used in the masterbatch plastic production is divided into 2 categories: pigment and dye. Pigments are the colorant that is not soluble in plastic while the dyes are able to dissolve and go into the plastic solutions.
The later colorant, dye, has important applications in cases of strong color mixing. Aromatic fatty compounds, especially anthraquinone dye and azo dye, with a simple structure are the dyes that are most concerned. Using dyes gives final products colorful appearance but they do not tend to hide imperfect details on the product surface such as pigments do. Besides, using dyes is also not the optimal method for outdoor applications. Because of their color mobility, they are often used in plastics with a higher glass transition temperature than room temperature such as solid PVC (uPVC), PS, PMMA, etc.
Is colorant for plastic popular and widely used?
Pigments are divided into two categories, inorganic pigments and organic pigments, in which the inorganic group exhibits superior thermal resistance properties and weather conditions that are superior to organic colorant for plastic. However, some inorganic pigments are toxic to consumers’ health. Therefore, the general trend in the industry of producing color masterbatch is switched to using organic colors instead of inorganic coloring products. Inorganic pigments are products obtained from high temperature calcination (calcination) of metal oxides such as titanium dioxide, iron oxides, chromium oxide, cadmium compounds and a number of other complex inorganic compounds.
