Treated inorganic pigments having improved dispersability and use thereof in coating compositions

1. A method for forming a coating composition comprising the steps of:

(a) forming a slurry comprising porous silica treated inorganic core particle and water by a process comprising:

(1) providing a slurry of inorganic core particle in water;

(2) heating the slurry to about 30 to about 40° C. and adjusting the pH to about 3.5 to about 7.5;

(3) adding a soluble silicate solution to the slurry while maintaining the pH between about 3.5 and about 7.5; and

(4) stirring for at least about 5 mins; and

(b) heating the slurry comprising porous silica treated inorganic core particle and water at a temperature of at least about 90° C.; and

(c) adding a soluble alumina source to the slurry from step (b) while maintaining the pH at about 8.0 to 9.5 to form an alumina treatment on the porous silica treated inorganic core particle;

wherein the treated inorganic core particle does not comprise dense silica or alumina treatments, and has silica present in the amount of about 7% to about 14% by weight and alumina present in the amount of about 4.0% to about 8.0% by weight, wherein the weight percents are based on the total weight of the inorganic core particle; and wherein the particle to particle surface treatments are substantially homogeneous.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the coating composition further comprises a resin.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the resin is an acrylic, styrene-acrylic, vinyl-acrylic, ethylene-vinyl acetate, vinyl acetate, alkyd, vinyl chloride, styrene-butadiene, vinyl versatate, vinyl acetate-maleate, or a mixture thereof.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the alkyd resin is a complex branched or cross-linked polyester having unsaturated aliphatic acid residues.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the resin is a urethane resin.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the urethane resin comprises the reaction product of a polyisocyanate and a polyhydric alcohol ester of drying oil acids.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the polyisocyanate is a toluene diisocyanate.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the resin is present in the amount of about 5 to about 40% by weight, based on the total weight of the coating composition.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the inorganic core particle is an oxide of titanium, aluminum, zinc, copper or iron; a sulfate of calcium, strontium or barium; zinc sulfide; copper sulfide, zeolite; mica; talc; kaolin, mullite, calcium carbonate, or silica.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the inorganic core particle is titanium dioxide or barium sulfate.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the inorganic core particle is titanium dioxide.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the slurry in step (b)is heated to a temperature of about 93 to about 97° C.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the soluble alumina source is an alkali metal salt of an aluminate anion.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the soluble alumina source is sodium aluminate or potassium aluminate.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the treated inorganic core particle is completely dispersed in the water to form a slurry in less than 10 minutes.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the silica in the porous silica treated inorganic core particle is applied by deposition of pyrogenic silica onto pyrogenic inorganic core particle, or by co-oxygenation of silicon tetrachloride with titanium tetrachloride.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the slurry from step (a)(2) is heated to a temperature of about 33 to about 37° C.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the soluble silicate is sodium silicate or potassium silicate.