Study on the morphology and structure of ε-Fe2O3 crystals in Chinese sauce wares (960–1279 CE)

Sauce glazed wares, one of the most representative Fe-based glazed wares manufactured during the Song Dynasty, are characterized by the yellowish- to reddish-brown color with hue varying with the angle incidence of the light. In this work, representative sauce fragments from different kilns were systematically analyzed by multiple imaging and spectroscopic techniques. The results show that the glaze color is derived from the microsize dendritic ε-Fe2O3 crystals in the glazes. The crystals are distributed in the whole glaze with obvious multi-layers, enhancing the coloring ability. Besides, numerous magnetite were observed in the glaze cross-section, giving rise to darken the glaze. In addition, the dendritic crystals are composed of comb-like secondary branches with an offset of hundreds of nanometers. Such a selective oriented structure could react with the incident light to generate structural color, giving rise to the glaze appearing angular heterochromism.

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Publication Details

Journal
npj Heritage Science
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-01853-1
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.27

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article

Study on the morphology and structure of ε-Fe2O3 crystals in Chinese sauce wares (960–1279 CE)

Jianfeng Zhu, Clément Holé, Philippe Sciau, Zhao Ren et al.
1 citations
npj Heritage Science
Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis
8.27
article

Study on the morphology and structure of ε-Fe2O3 crystals in Chinese sauce wares (960–1279 CE)

Jianfeng Zhu, Clément Holé, Philippe Sciau, Zhao Ren, Hongjie Luo, Ying Wang, Tian Wang, Qiang Li, Fen Wang, Senwei Xia
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Sauce glazed wares, one of the most representative Fe-based glazed wares manufactured during the Song Dynasty, are characterized by the yellowish- to reddish-brown color with hue varying with the angle incidence of the light. In this work, representative sauce fragments from different kilns were systematically analyzed by multiple imaging and spectroscopic techniques. The results show that the glaze color is derived from the microsize dendritic ε-Fe2O3 crystals in the glazes. The crystals are distributed in the whole glaze with obvious multi-layers, enhancing the coloring ability. Besides, numerous magnetite were observed in the glaze cross-section, giving rise to darken the glaze. In addition, the dendritic crystals are composed of comb-like secondary branches with an offset of hundreds of nanometers. Such a selective oriented structure could react with the incident light to generate structural color, giving rise to the glaze appearing angular heterochromism.

npj Heritage ScienceVol. 13(1)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), State Administration of Cultural Heritage (CN), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR), Centre d’Élaboration de Matériaux et d’Études Structurales (FR), Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis
8.27
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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