Fluorine-free synthesis and chromatic properties of V/Pr co-doped zircon ceramic pigment

A fluorine-free route has been developed to fabricate V/Pr co-doped zircon (ZrSiO 4 ) ceramic pigments with Na 3 VO 4 and Pr(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O as colourants . The as-prepared pigments were characterized by XRD , Raman, XPS , UV–vis, FE-SEM, TEM and automatic colourimeters . The results show that Na 3 VO 4 can not only act as colourant to produce blue hue, but as mineralizer to accelerate the formation of V/Pr co-doped ZrSiO 4 pigment. A colour tuning between blue, green and yellow can be achieved by increasing the mole ratio of Pr/V, and the most intense yellow hue (L* = 74.55, a* = −0.38, b* = 46.82) is obtained at a mole ratio of Pr/V = 0.5. Both Pr 4+ and Pr 3+ cations are co-existed in the pigments, where Pr 4+ contributes to the generation of yellow hue while Pr 3+ undermines the yellow hue. The good chromatic ability in glaze at high temperature suggest its potential application in ceramic decoration.