Effect of dispersion and aggregation of wet-synthesized Al-substituted hematite particles on color tone of powders and red overglaze enamels

The Japanese traditional red overglaze ceramic ware, akae, a composite in which hematite particles are dispersed in a glass-frit layer, has become extremely popular with porcelain lovers all over the world. Recently, development of hematite powders dedicated to akae is strongly desired by various porcelain producers. Inspired by Fukiya bengala, a high-quality old red pigment produced in Japan in the early 18th century, we produced Al-substituted hematite powder through wet-process in a large scale. In this study, we investigated the effect of dispersion and aggregation of hematite particles on the color tone of the resultant powder, and developed a technique to produce high-quality akae using the hematite powder. The prepared powder is primarily composed of hematite nanoparticles ∼10 nm in diameter that contains 5 mol % of Al3+ in the structure, and these primary particles are aggregated to form secondary particles 30–70 nm in diameter. The powder showed dark brown color regardless of its nanometric character because the secondary particles form large aggregated particles with high volume fraction of hematite, leading to prevent transmission of visible light. Applying ultrasonic and silica-coating treatments that realize low volume fraction of hematite, we obtained the hematite powder exhibiting yellowish red color. In addition, high-quality akae test pieces having highly dispersive hematite particles in a glass layer were successfully prepared using ball-milling technique and subsequent combination process with the submicron-sized lead-free frit.