Preparation and Characterization of Nanoscale Cobalt Blue Pigment for Ceramic Inkjet Printing by Sol-Gel Self-Propagating Combustion

Cobalt blue pigments were prepared by self-propagating combustion followed by sol-gel method using aluminum nitrate and cobalt nitrate as the raw material. X ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fiber optic spectrometer and colorimetric analysis were used to investigate the effect of reaction temperature, metal ion concentration and dispersant upon the gel formation. The results show that the formation of gel network could be promoted by increasing the concentration of metal ion (0.01~0.2 mol/L) and sol-gel reaction temperature (80~90°C), and the disper-sibility and stability of the pigment powder could be improved with dispersing agent. The dried gel precursor was calcined at 1250 °C to form 200~500 nm cobalt aluminum with spinel structure with highly negative value of b*.