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Tmo inks made with different led pigme**ts were evaluated by. common mettvods to assess the &give of pigment dispelsion, cT~wpigment
is ?rvoredifficult to dsperse than the other its the vehicle used. The five ttsettwds that could detect &anges in dispersion with each pass
over a three-roll mill weir" a light scattering pa~ticle size distribution analyze,, a NPiRI fi,ze?zess of gi~nd gauge, gloss, contrast ratio
measurements, a~ut rheology. The gloss a~M contrast ratio measu,~?iwnts could detect changes with ead~ pass ovo" a three roll mill only
with a significant reduction fl~ pigment particle size.
INTRODUCTION troscopy (UAS), 12 centrifugal sedimen- The particle sizes of pigments thai give
tation measurements, :3 or "ink finger- the best performance are much smaller
The dispersion of a pigment plays a ma~ printing <4 although t h e y are all avail- than this. Further, there are those who
jor rote in the properties of the final fihn able to us. W e a p p l i e d the noted meth- feel that the action of drawing the pig-
formed b y an ink, paint, or any other ods to two red pigments in a m o d e l mented liquid d o w n the gauge can dis-
pigmented coating. The pigment par- vehicle for screen printing inks that corn perse the pigment inore than it is in the
t i d e size distribution has an effect on rained no dispersion agents. One pig- undisturbed state. Still, the fineness of
the color strength and s h a d @ opacity m e n t is considered b y us to be more grind gauge, or grind gauge, is used
and transparency, 2 gloss, 3 and outdoor difficult than the other to disperse in extensively in the industry.
weatherability ~in the final film. The p a > this vehicle. W e were curious as to w h y A relationship between the degree of
ticle size distribution has art effect on this is so and if the conmson m e t h o d s pigment dispersion and the color devel-
the coating in the liquid state on its rhe noted p r e v i o u s l y w o u l d give us some opment properties of a pigment, irtctud-
ology s and, for fluids of tow viscosity, insight. ing the opacity and transparency, has
on how stable a system will be against There are n u m e r o u s types of fine- been noted for some time by Mie.21 Later,
pigment settling. ness of grind gauges used in the indus- Brockes ~: and Chromey 23 applied spe
This s t u d y takes a look at some com- try. is We prefer a National Prmting Ink cificatly to pigments of all shapes Mie's
mon methods to assess the pigment dis- R e s e a r c h I n s t i t u t e (NPIRI) one~mil theory of spheres. The Mie theory states
persion within a system. Those meth- g r i n d o m e t e r for a fineness of grind that for a given pigment, m a x i m u m color
ods are fineness of grind, contrast ratio gauge as o p p o s e d to a Hegman or PC development is achieved once that pig-
m e a s u r e m e n t s ~ for opacity and trans gauge. The NPIRI grindometer is used ment is dispersed below a n ~ s i m m n size.
parency, color strength and shade de routinely in the printing ink industry This m i n i m u m size is around 0.10 mi
velopment, gloss, particle size measure- and is more able to detect particle sizes cron for a moderately absorbing p i ~
ment b y light scattering, rheology, and near the lower linfit of detection than ment and 0.05 micron for a strongly ab-
optical microscopy. We limited our in- the H e g m a n or PC gauge. The printing sorbing pigment. Further, the m a x i m u m
vestigations to these methods as these industry needs finer particle sizes be opacity of a pigment is reached at a di
are the most c o m m o n l y used in the in- cause of the thinner films in printing as ameter of around t~alf the wavelength
dustry. We d i d not investigate less cons- opposed to painting. A grind gauge is of visible light or at around 0.25 micron, z
m o n l y used m e t h o d s such as scanning easy to use, reproducible, and gives an As the particle size is decreased further,
electron microscopy (SEM) and irons indication of large particles in a pig- a decrease in opacity with a subsequent
mission electron microscopy (TEM) of a mented system but gives no indication i n c r e a s e in t r a n s p a r e n c y a n d color
d r i e d p a i n t film section7 quasi-elastic of the distribution of the majority of strength is obtained '-~as shown in Figure
light scattering (photon correlation spec- smaller particles in the dispersed sys- 1. For many, but not all pigments, there
troscopy)/" image analysis, '~ h y d r o d y - tem3 ~,17It is generally assumed that the is a change in shade 1,3,24> with a change
n a m i c chromatography, ~~ back-scatter- decrease in size of the largest particles in the particle size distribution. There~
ing studies, n ultrasonic attenuation spec- corresponds to an improvement of the fore, the o p a c i t y / t r a n p a r e n c y and the
overall dispersion of pigments in the sys color strength and shade of a pigment
tern. This has been noted in the litera- can give an indication of its degree of
Prvs~nle d a t ch e 7 sth A nn ,.,al M ~eI~n< of lh e F ~d ~r alton o f ture for some time, 1:; The smallest par- dispersion.
6o,:le*les forCo,stlngsI~chndogy, on, J,:l~c,~r 1620, 2ru)u. in ticle size that can be detected b y a fine- It should be noted from Figure I that
ch , : a ~so.I[
*~2ommer,:~al Graph~,_-sD~vrs~on, 2(~7-glq-(~!: 3M C~ni~r, ness of grind gauge is around 10 mi- there is a decrease in opacity with an
SI Paul, MN 55144 crons according to Lawrence t~ and Hall increase in particle size above 0.25 mi-
t!:M Coris,ora> Prc~:es~T~,:l-nol,a,~y Ce-,l~r. :'~.~1 01 3M
C~nt~. ~"1 Pm,k MI'155t 44
et a l l-~ but Patton is w o u l d suggest that cron. This indicates that any change in
* * R.etrr~d from 3M Corp b~for~ p,.,b[~,:,~t~on the lower limit is t w o to five microns. particle siz e from flocculation can lead to
From this, a particle size distribution can this particle size distribution w o u l d be
be calculated. This method assumes for adequate for most applications. Again,
the calculations that the particles are as with the dynanfic light scattering in-
~. ................ColorStrength spherical, In order for the method to be strument, the application of the optical
o _ of value, one must be sure that what is microscope requires that the sample be-
b e i n g m e a s u r e d is a r e p r e s e n t a t i v e ing investigated be representative of the
sample of the dispersion and that there pigment dispersion and that there be no
is no change in the dispersion of the change in particle size distribution with
system upon dilution for measurement. dilution. It should be noted that refer~
The values one obtains w i l l d e p e n d upon ences 43 a n d 45 refer to ASTM lest
the algorithm used in the calculations method E20. This test method was dis~
I
and instrument factors such as the n u m - continued as of 1994.
/ ber and type of light source(s) and the
t t
n u m b e r of detectors. Js,3~ Further, the
particle sizes calculated are from allpos- EXPE RIMEN TAL
( I . . : I ,_ I