LUO Ting 1, WU Junming 1,2, YU Huiqing 1, XIONG Lu 1, FANG Tao 1
(1.Research Institute of Ancient Ceramics, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333001, Jiangxi, China; 2.University of Science
and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China)
Abstract: Lime-ash is the core material widely used to prepare glaze in ancient China. Among all the lime-ashes, those made in Jingdezhen are the most influential and representative. Not only did lime-ash contribute greatly to the prosperity of porcelain making of Jingdezhen in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it also has a complicated, rigorous and mysterious in its preparation process. Therefore, why limestone should be processed by a very complex route to produce lime ash though both materials have calcium carbonate as their main component has been a key issue of the study on ancient Chinese porcelain production for Chinese and foreign researchers. In this paper,hydrated lime powders before and after sieving were collected as the raw materials for the comparative study, and three kinds of lime-ash samples smoldered and urine-retted for different times were prepared. The particle size distribution, thermal properties, phase and chemical composition of the samples were systematically discussed by testing with laser particle size analyzer, thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer (ICP). The results showed thatthe traditional preparation process of lime-ash was not only beneficial to the fine pulverization and purification of limestone, but also improved the performance of the glaze made of lime-ash.
Key words: particle size; fine pulverization; purification; performance of glaze