Chromophore-bearing zeolite materials as precursors of colored ceramics

摘要

This work investigates the possibility to obtain colored ceramics by firing compacts of the synthetic zeolite A, pre-loaded with chromophore metal cations, and gives also a preliminary evaluation of their technical properties. Natural zeolite-bearing materials, i.e., clinoptilolite-and phillipsite-rich tuffs, which naturally contain chromofore agents, such as iron oxides and hydroxides, have also been considered as ceramic precursors. The results obtained appear very encouraging as regards either easiness of manufacture or technical properties of the resulting products. Obtaining ceramics with an uniform color distribution in a wide range of shades appears a major advantage of the this technique.