The synthesis and characterization of Al/Co3O4 magnetic composite pigments with low infrared emissivity and low lightness

The main challenge of low infrared emissivity coatings based on aluminum flake lies in finding an efficient method to synthesize the composite pigment with low infrared emissivity and low lightness simultaneously. In this work, we overcome this constraint to some extent, synthesizing a novel Al/Co3O4 magnetic composite pigments with low infrared emissivity and low lightness by thermal cracking and hot flowing method. The results show that the covering area of Co3O4 on the aluminum flake can be tuned by the amount of CoCO3 adding in precursor and the reaction temperature of hot flowing, both of which pay a key factor on the VIS and IR spectral reflectance and magnetic properties. The magnetic Al/Co3O4 composite pigments with low lightness and low infrared emissivity can be obtained at 130 °C for 24 h in hot flowing liquid. The lightness L∗ can be decreased to 69.2, however the infrared emissivity (8-14 μm) is also low to 0.45. Compared with the single Al flakes, Al/Co3O4 magnetic composite pigments present stronger magnetic properties. Therefore, the Al/Co3O4 magnetic composite pigments have offered new choice for the pigments of low infrared emissivity coatings.