Procedure for controlling the chemical reaction in multi-layer ceramic decorations, according to interfacial and surface properties, in which the ceramic coating formulation is broken down into two separate compounds: on the one hand, a bottom layer formed by a glaze with part of the necessary oxides to obtain the ceramic effect, applied in the conventional manner over the ceramic substrate, and on the other hand, a top layer formed by an ink with the other necessary part of the oxides, applied by injection over the previous layer. The ceramic product is finished off with a firing process. This procedure has the advantage of regulating the penetration of the oxides of the top layer throughout the profile of the bottom layer, thus achieving an adequate concentration of oxides in the zone nearest to the surface, which permits optimization of the chemical reaction and thus, of the ceramic effect obtained.

Pigments and inks for the decoration of ceramic objects, which have, in their formulation, iron and phosphorus oxides, combined with lithium oxide, the presence of this latter element being that which gives the pigments the capacity of being milled (in the form of a suspension in a solvent base) to the point of being able to obtain inks that are characterised by having very narrow PSD and an upper bound of less than 1 μm. Thanks to this PSD, inks prepared using these pigments can be applied in standard printing heads to glazed ceramic objects, enabling a metallic gloss and appearance to be obtained after said ceramic objects undergo a firing process. The ink obtain has a low viscosity, allowing an increase in the concentration of the pigment and thus an increase in its yield, optimizing gloss and the metallic appearance of the finished ceramic objects.

A new material efficiently attenuating transmission of near-infrared light is provided. A provided near-infrared-shielding material includes a plurality of flaky particles, wherein each of the plurality of flaky particles includes a flaky substrate and a single-layer film formed on a principal surface of the flaky substrate, and the near-infrared-shielding material has a light reflectance of 40% or more between wavelengths of 800 nm and 1400 nm. The flaky substrate is, for example, a glass flake. The glass flake has an average thickness of, for example, 0.6 pm or less. The single-layer film includes, for example, titanium oxide and has an average thickness of, for example, 80 nm to 165 nm.

The present disclosure provides, for example, systems and methods for generating carbon particles. Carbon particles may have a total content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of less than or equal to about 0.5 parts per million, a content of benzo[a]pyrene of less than or equal to about 5 parts per billion, and a water spreading pressure that is less than about 5 mJ/m.sup.2. A carbon particle among the carbon particles may comprise less than about 0.3% sulfur by weight or less than or equal to about 0.03% ash by weight.

A reflective material comprising a multilayered array of particles encapsulated by a matrix material, the reflective material defining a primary surface, the reflective material exhibiting: (i) visible retroreflection of incident radiation, wherein a wavelength of visible retroreflected radiation decreases from a first visible wavelength at a first angle to the primary surface to a second, shorter wavelength of visible retroreflected radiation as the viewing angle to the primary surface increases; and (ii) Bragg diffraction of the incident radiation, wherein the wavelength of radiation Bragg diffracted normal to the primary surface is longer than the wavelength of visible radiation, such that no visible radiation is retroreflected or Bragg diffracted in a direction normal to the primary surface.

A high chroma effect pigment includes a platelet substrate and an optical coating formed on the platelet substrate. The optical coating includes a first high refractive index layer, a second high refractive index layer on the first high refractive index layer, and a diffused third material having a range of diffusion between 100% to partial diffusion in the first high refractive index layer, the second high refractive index layer, or both the first and the second high refractive index layers. The first and second high refractive index layers independently have a refractive index of about >1.65. The diffused third material is SiO.sub.2 or a metal oxide is different than the first and second high refractive index layers.

The present invention provides an ink-jet printing method using a water-based ink for ink-jet printing which is excellent in quick-drying fixing properties and long-term fixing properties when printing characters or images on a low-water absorbing recording medium, as well as ejection stability. The present invention relates to [1] an ink-jet printing method of printing characters or images on a recording medium using a water-based ink for ink-jet printing, in which the recording medium has a water absorption of not more than 10 g/m.sup.2 and not less than 0 g/m.sup.2 as measured in a pure water contact time of 100 milliseconds; the water-based ink includes a pigment (A), resin particles (B), a polypropylene glycol (X) and water; and the resin particles (B) are produced by emulsion polymerization method; and [2] the aforementioned water-based ink for ink-jet printing.

The present invention relates to non-metallic interference pigments, in particular laminar interference pigments, which comprise a thin high-refractive layer and an outermost layer that contains crystalline carbon in the form of graphite and/or graphene. The invention also relates to a method for producing such pigments and the use of the thus produced pigments.

The present invention relates to electrically conductive, coloured interference pigments, in particular flake-form interference pigments, which have an outermost layer which comprises crystalline carbon in the form of graphite and/or graphene, to a process for the preparation of such pigments, and to the use of the pigments prepared in this way.

A paint composition, which comprises a stanchion-encapsulated pigment such as titanium dioxide, can provide enhanced paint quality with reduced cost.