ISBN-13: 9783639170764 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 152 str.
The predominantly used red glass pigment today isbased on Cadmium, an element hazardous to theenvironment and toxic to humans. Two possiblealternatives are glasses coloured by copper or gold,but there are several problems with their industrialproduction. The aim of this work has been to obtain abetter understanding of gold and copper rubies, andalso to investigate other combinations of elements.The impact of different reducing agents on the copperand gold ruby pigments was examined and the colourdevelopment in copper ruby glasses was studiedextensively. Experimental results provided goodevidence that the colour in copper rubies originatesfrom nanoparticles of metallic copper. Both gold andcopper rubies are more environmentally friendly thanthe cadmium based pigment, and must be regarded aspossible alternatives. Regarding other alternativesthe possibility to combine red colour andsemi-transparent alabaster glasses was studied. Itwas also found that by combining molybdenum andselenium in alkali-lime-silica glass under reducingconditions, a red pigment can be obtained. Red glassoriginating from this combination has not beenreported earlier.