Korean Journal of Materials Research ISSN:1225-0562(Print) 2287-7258(Online) 한국재료학회지

Ink-jet printing techniques with ceramic ink, which contains ceramic pigments as colorant, are in increasingly use in the ceramic industry. Generally, ceramic pigments that are produced by conventional method show diameters of several micrometers; these micrometer sized particles in the ink-jet printing process can cause undesirable behavior such as print head nozzle clogging. To prevent this problem, a particle size reduction process is required. In this study, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) pigments were synthesized via solid state method. Each pigment particle was milled to submicron size by an attrition mill. The effects of micronizing on the morphology, mechanical property, crystal structure and color property of the CMYK ceramic pigments were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), particle size analysis (PSA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and CIE L^*a^*b^*.