Preparation of Novel Copper Iron Lazulite Imitated Phosphate Pigments

Abstract

In recent years, the use of hazardous heavy metals has been banned all over the world, and the development of alternative materials is required. As for inorganic pigments, heavy metals have been used so far, but there is an urgent need for development of inorganic pigments that do not use these. In this work, novel phosphate pigments imitated natural ore were prepared from copper, iron, aluminum nitrate solutions, ascorbic acid, and phosphoric acid at pH 5. The obtained precipitates were heated at 300 and 500oC for 1 hour. The precipitates and their thermal products were estimated with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Infrared (IR) spectra, ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis.) reflectance spectra, and L*a*b* color space. By adjusting the Cu/Fe ratio and temperature, inorganic phosphate pigments of light blue, green, yellow, orange, brown and red could be obtained.