[Synthesis and characterization of mixed metal oxide pigments].

In the present work, aluminum chloride and various soluble salts of doping ions were dissolved in water. In addition, urea and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were also dissolved in the above aqueous solution under supersonic treatments. Then the solutions were heated to induce the hydrolysis of urea so that soluble aluminum and doping ions convert into insoluble hydroxide or carbonate gels. After calcinations, the obtained gels change to mixed metal oxide pigments whose color is related to type and concentrations of the doping ions. XRD characterization demonstrates that the diffraction patterns of the products are the same as that of alpha-alumina. Diffuse reflectance spectra of samples of the samples in UV-Vis regions show that the absorption bands for d-d transitions of the doping ions undergo considerable change as the coordinate environments change. In addition, L*, a* and b* values of the pigments were measured by using UV-Vis densitometer. SEM results indicate that the size of the pigment powders is in the range 200-300 nm. The pigments are quite stable since no evidence of dissolution was observed after the synthesized pigment is soaked for 24 hours. ICP test shows that very little amount of doped metal occurs in the corresponding filtrate. The above results suggest that these new kinds of mixed metal oxide pigments are stable, non-toxic, environmental friendly and they may be applicable in molten spinning process and provide a new chance for non-aqueous printing and dyeing industry.

[Synthesis and characterization of chromium doped Y3Al5O12 compound pigment].

The authors synthesized a new kind of green pigment via co-precipitation method by doping Y3Al5O12 with Cr+. The size of the pigment particles is around 200 nm as observed under scanning electron microscope. XRD results demonstrate that the pigment crystalline form of the pigment is yttrium alluminium garnet. UV-Vis spectra were used to investigate the coordination states and transition behavior of the doping ions. In addition, the colour feature was measured by CIE L* a* b* chroma value. The pigment was blended with polypropylene and then polypropylene fiber was produced using the polypropelene-pigment composite via molten spinning process. The distribution of the pigment particles in the polypropylene fibers was characterized by Xray computed tomography (CT) technique on the Beijing synchrotron radiation facility. The result states that the composite oxide pigment particles are homogeneously dispersed in the polypropylene fibers. The pigments are stable, non-toxic to the environment, and may be applied in non-aqueous dyeing to reduce waste water emitted by textile dyeing and printing industry.

[Using barium fluoride fine particles as stationary phase for TLC/FTIR analysis].

In situ TLC/FTIR technique has tremendous potential in the analysis of complex mixtures. However, the progress in this technique was quite slow. The reason is that conventional stationary phase such as silica gel etc. has strong absorption in FTIR spectrum and thus brings about severe interference in the detection of samples. To solve the problem, the authors propose to use barium fluoride fine particles as stationary phase of TLC plate. The reasons are as follows: Barium fluoride wafer has been extensively used as infrared window in FTIR experiments and it has no absorbance in an IR region between 4 000 and 800 cm'. As a matter of fact, the atomic mass of barium and fluoride is quite large, thus the normal vibration of BaF2 lattice is limited in far-IR region and low frequency part of mid-IR region. Therefore, the interference caused by IR absorption of stationary phase can be resolved if BaF2 is used as stationary phase of TLC plate. Moreover, BaF2 is quite stable and insolvable in water and most organic solvents and it will not be dissolved by mobile phase or react with samples in TLC separation. Additionally, decreasing the particle size of BaF2 is very important in TLC/FTIR analysis technique. The reason is two-fold: First, decreasing the particle size of stationary phase is helpful to improving the efficiency of separation by TLC plate; second, decreasing the size of BaFz particle can improve the quality of FTIR spectra by alleviating the problem of light scattering. By optimizing the synthetic conditions, fine particles of barium fluoride were obtained. SEM results indicate that the size of the BaF2 particles is around 500 nm. FTIR spectrum of the BaF2 particles shows that no absorption of impurity was observed. Moreover, the elevation of baseline caused by light scattering is insignificant. The authors have developed a new technique named "settlement volatilization method" to prepare TLC plate without polymeric adhesive that may bring about significant interference in FTIR analysis. Preliminary TLC experiments proved that the TLC plate using BaF2 fine particles as stationary phase can separate rhodamine B from methylene blue successfully. Applications of barium fluoride fine particles as stationary phase have bright perspective in the development of new in-situ TLC/FTIR analysis techniques.