YInMn Blue Application in Ceramics - Results

@Team_Creative_Arts @Team_Ceramics @Team_Science

Colorant and stain can often be the most expensive part of a ceramics piece. Most colorant and stains are derived from oxides of chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, and cobalt. It can applied at any stage, from clay body, to slip, to inlays, glazes and majolica. Cobalt oxide has been the gold standard of blue for millennia. It is the most powerful colorant in a ceramic artist’s color palette; 0.5% can give a strong blue. To allow clay body to become fully vitrified, colorant must be able to survive the kiln ( at the DMS cone 6, or 2232F). Knowing that YInMn blue is prepare at approximately 2200F, this colorant may not be able to hold up at that firing.

First Round of test was with YInMn Blue in a white clay body. We wanted to see how YInMn Blue compared to colorant currently available today. 80.00g ball of a white clay body (cino blanco) were divided into 4 ball, 20.00g each. 1% YInMn Blue, 1% Cobalt Oxide, 1% Mason Stain were added to each corresponding ball and kneaded. One Control was included.



The clay were then left to dry completely before bisque firing at Cone 04 or 1945F.

Second Round included YInMn Blue in a white slip. 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% of YInMn Blue, cobalt oxide, and mason stain each were mixed into 10.00g of white slip.




Each slip was than painted onto a leather-hard plate thrown from a t-mix clay body.


The three plates were left of dry completely before bisque fired to cone 04.

In the third experiment YInMn Blue was added a clear glaze. 2% and 5% of YInMn Blue was added to two 50.00g batch of clear glaze and blended thoroughly. 3 coats were applied to an already bisque fired t-mix tea cup. The tea cups were allowed to dry for one day and fired at cone 6.


After coming out of the bisque kiln, YInMn Blue held up in both slip and clay body. Compare to the other colorant, YInMn Blue (top right) lean more towards violet than blue, while the cobalt oxide (top left) was dark and vibrant at every percentage.

The slip pieces and clay body experiment were dipped in a clear glaze, left to dry, and fried at cone 6.

Below are the result of all experiment after firing.





In conclusion YInMn Blue could not survive the mid-range glaze firing at cone 6 and thus have limited application in ceramics. All clay body, slip, and glazes containing YInMn Blue reverted to white.

Possible future test may include using YInMn Blue in a low fire clear glaze and firing to 04 or lower.

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:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:Awesome awesome awesome!!! :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

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Wow! Very meticulous and well designed study and experimental technique. Impressive!

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Good work, Liam! I agree with YInMn probably not holding up to Cone 6 temps. One comment: since recipes are based on percentage of dry weight of materials, do you think that would influence the outcome? Or do you think we would get the same result because the colorant was scaled up based on the wet weight?

And I agree, it looks like cone 6 oxidation is a no-go, but it still remains to be seen what happens in a reduction firing, both at higher and lower temps.

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Beautiful, both work and documentation. Well done Liam!

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You’re right Nathan. Colorant in glazes are calculated and added to the final 100% weight of the dry material. I imagine that would account for variation in the final result. Due to the small sample of YInMn available, I thought a Line Blend test would be an appropriate initial test of color strength in the glaze. With a larger sample I think doing a percentage of dry weight would be the way to go in developing a reliable glaze recipe with YInMn Blue.

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@Team_Science

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excellent work! You are a marvelous scientist! well well done!

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It probably won’t change the results, but it would be a nice secondary check when we have more to work with. :slight_smile:

Great process design. However, I’m wondering if the raw YLnMn blue constituents could be used in a glaze and produce the pigment in situ?

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Great job on this!

Ex-Ceramic engineer here… first, great experimental design!

But I agree with someone above, the chemistry here would likely do MUCH better in a reduction firing. You should redo the YInMn plate and puck and see how much O2 you can keep out of the firing… you’d expect the Mn to react react readily with O2 at those temps.

I don’t have my old text books anymore, but I’m curious if there are any phase diagrams available for this combination of elements.

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Definitely worth a try. However in the context of DMS, firing oxidation in electric kiln may be our limiting factor. From my understanding YInMn crystalline structure are formed at around 2200f. Regardless of the firing atmosphere, at that high of a temperature, I find it hard to believe the free floating elemental constituent in the glaze will recrystallize onced cooled. Protecting the integrity of the crystalline structure may be the defining factor for using YInMn in ceramic.

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