The Search for New Red Pigments

摘要

Limited pigment choices for porcelain stoneware tile led to a search for new pigments or new synthetic routes for the use of old ones in efforts to obtain different shades of red and orange. Color is usually introduced into ceramic glazes or bodies by dispersing a colored crystalline phase insoluble in the matrix. This crystalline phase, commonly called pigment, imparts its color to the matrix. Pigments for the production of traditional colored glazed and unglazed tile must show thermal and chemical stability at high temperatures (1200-1250℃). They also must be inert to the chemical action of the molten glaze (frits or sintering aids).