Pearlescent pigments are mainly divided into the following categories:
Inorganic substrate pearl pigment
Inorganic substrate pearlescent pigments mainly include high mercury chloride, basic lead carbonate, acid lead arsenate, acid lead phosphate, and bismuth hydroxide. However, such pearl pigments either have potential toxicity or poor chemical stability, which greatly limits their range of use.
Mica based pearl pigment
Natural mica is an excellent substrate for preparing mica pearlescent pigments, and is widely used due to its abundant resources and low manufacturing costs. Mica titanium pearlescent pigment is a widely researched and technologically mature type of pearlescent pigment. Due to the different refractive indices of titanium dioxide and mica substrates, good pearl effect, color effect, and angle flicker effect are generated through multiple reflections and interferences of light.
Other
With the continuous deepening of research on pearl pigments, other matrix materials have also been discovered and used in the preparation process of pearl pigments, such as glass based pearl pigments, aluminum flake based pearl pigments, oxide based pearl pigments, kaolin, ceramic flakes, graphite flakes, etc.