Colored hollow glass microspheres add color to a product without the use of other colorants (pigments or dyes) and also offer functional benefits such as lower viscosity and improved flow. Solid polyethylene hollow glass microspheres can be manufactured in any color, including flesh tone, clear, grey, fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark and multicolor, which provides a multitude of options for color effects in a wide variety of products.
Hollow glass microspheres can be used to add saturated color, a hint of color or a sparkle to a formula. Colored hollow glass microspheres enable formulators to achieve saturated colors or desired color effects with much larger particles, which are not respirable and come in a free- flowing dry powder, ensuring a simpler formulation process. In addition, since larger hollow glass microspheres tend to not agglomerate as easily as submicron pigments, the challenge of pressed-powder agglomeration is greatly reduced.
Since creating an opaque hollow glass microsphere is almost impossible, colored polymer hollow glass microspheres are often preferred for applications requiring high color, opacity and superior coverage. However, hollow glass microspheres are preferable if maximum clarity of the sphere is desired, for example, for a soft-focus effect.
In science and technology applications color becomes one of the most important properties of hollow glass microspheres, especially when used as tracer particles that need to have high contrast and visibility in the system, such as in-vivo studies, process diagnostics and troubleshooting, contamination studies, flow visualization, and instrument calibration, to name a few applications.
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