Pearl lustre pigments

Abstract

The history of pearl lustre pigments began 1656 in Paris when Japan isolated the silvery substance of the inside of fish scales and developed a suspension with silver lustre. The first pearl lustre suspension with its brilliant lustre was called Essenced Orient. It contained the same substance, which was later called natural fish silver. In the 17th century, buttons made of mother of pearl became popular and led to an upswing in the button industry in various European countries. The introduction of poly methyl methacrylate and unsaturated polyester in button manufacturing brought on the search for synthetic pearl lustre pigments and replaced fish silver and mother of pearl. The most valuable of all newly developed pearl lustre pigments proved to be basic lead carbonate. Bismuth oxy chloride, first implemented for the reflection layers, grew to the second most important synthetic pearl lustre pigment. Around 1960, a new pigment generation on the basis of metal oxide coated mica platelets was introduced to the market. The first of these pearl lustre pigments replace basic lead carbonate from its application areas were titanium dioxide mica pigments. Today there are a multitude of variations of such pigments for many decorative and technical applications on the market. The use of oxides such as iron oxides, chromium oxide or mixed oxides instead of titanium dioxide permits a steady growing application of artificial pearl lustre effects. This paper gives a brief idea about the manufacture and properties of pearl lustre pigments.