Preparation and characterization of blue color aluminum pigments Al/SiO2/PB with double-layer structure

Blue color aluminum pigments with double layer structure Al/SiO2/PB were prepared successfully through coating Prussian blue layer on aluminum flake by traditional wet chemical method. The reaction conditions were optimized according to the coating efficiency (CE) and percentage of coating (PC) values. It was found that the coating efficient, percentage of coating at the optimum conditions is 99.48% and 9.65% respectively. SEM and AFM were used to characterize the surface morphology of the Al/SiO2/PB pigments. The results show that the surface has a heterogeneous nanoparticle layer and the average roughness is 16.9 nm. The optical properties were investigated in detail by using five angle's spectrophotometer revealing that Al/SiO2/PB pigments have angle-dependent optical effects and at least three different colors from the five angles. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.