WANG Yongqing ¹, CHANG Qibing ¹, HU Shuyun ¹, YANG Ke ¹, WANG Xia ², ZHOU Jianer ¹
(1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China;
2. College of Science, Technology and Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333001, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: At present, inkjet printing is the mainstream technology of ceramic decoration. The performance of ink is an important factor affecting the performance of the printing. In order to obtain highly stable ceramic ink, ultrafine ceramic pigment with narrow particle size distribution is required. However, the refining process of the ultrafine pigment will change the color stability of the pigment itself and in glaze. To understand this effect, the particle size of the commercially available praseodymium yellow pigment is changed through the physical crushing and then observed in the research. The results show that when the average particle diameter (d50) decreases from 6.809 μm to 1.094 μm, the chroma of the praseodymium yellow pigment changes from L * =82.49, a *=7.47, b *=-72.70 into L * =81.51, a *=-0.58, b *=-56.41. The similar tendency is shown in the praseodymium yellow pigment in transparent glaze. This change explains that the praseodymium yellow pigment prepared by solid phase synthesis method has double layer structure. Pr-ZrSiO₄ is distributed on the surface of the pigment particles and white ZrO₂ is in the core. The physical crushing induced by ball milling results in exposing white ZrO₂ core, decreaseing Pr-ZrSiO₄ concentration, and weakening coloration of the pigment.

Key words: praseodymium yellow pigment; inkjet printing; particle size; chroma