Synthesis and photophysical studies of spectrally selective ceramic colorants from jarosite: Compatible additives for dark colored automobile coating

Jarosite, the byproduct obtained from zinc industry was resourcefully utilized for processing a series of ceramic hybrid dark colorants by incorporating selective compositions of metal and antimony. To explore and exploit the potential of this mineral waste as alternate colorants and generating secondary wealth, these jarosite colorants were subjected to optical properties assessment in the wave lengths region 200–2500 nm using UV–Vis, Near IR and photo luminescence. It is already known that the poor NIR reflectance of dark pigments poses a great challenge for converting them with high reflectance capability, the optical property measurements confirm that these jarosite derived dark colorants exhibit promising UV–Vis absorption as well as NIR reflectance. Interestingly, 43% of NIR reflectance was observed for Ag-Sb incorporated Jarosite (JSM 2) is the highest ever reported for black colorants. In addition to the optical property, the jarosite dark colorants were analyzed for the particle size, phase purity and morphology by employing DLS, Powder XRD, SEM and TEM techniques and the results are discussed. This unique study focused on the unexplored jarosite as well as the spectrally selective jarosite colorants for dark colored automobile coatings.