CHEN Renhua ¹, LIU Runyuan ¹, ZHANG Xiaozhen ², WANG Yongqing ²
(1. Jiangxi Jinhuan Pigments Co., Ltd., Yichun 336000, Jiangxi, China;
2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: Praseodymium-doped zircon yellow pigments were synthesized by the liquid co-precipitation method, using ZrOCl₂·8H₂O, Na₂SiO₃·5H₂O and PrCl₃·7H₂O as the raw materials and LiF as the mineralizer. The calcination temperature was arranged from 830 °C to 950 °C. The synthesized samples were characterized in terms of crystal structure, particle morphology and size, and CIE L*a*b* color indices by the X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Color Measuring Spectrometer, respectively. The effects of the Pr doping content and the calcination temperature on the synthesized pigments were investigated. Results show that the particle size and yellow saturation of the pigments can be controlled by optimizing the Pr doping content and the calcination temperature. The praseodymium-doped zircon pigment prepared with 5wt% PrCl₃·7H₂O and calcined at 860 °C for 2 h shows the best yellow coloring effect.

Key words: pigment; yellow; zircon; praseodymium; solid solution