title: Learning from the past: rare ε-Fe2O3 in the ancient black-glazed Jian (Tenmoku) wares.
abstract: Ancient Jian wares are famous for their lustrous black glaze that exhibits unique colored patterns. Some striking examples include the brownish colored "Hare's Fur" (HF) strips and the silvery "Oil Spot" (OS) patterns. Herein, we investigated the glaze surface of HF and OS samples using a variety of characterization methods. Contrary to the commonly accepted theory, we identified the presence of ε-Fe2O3, a rare metastable polymorph of Fe2O3 with unique magnetic properties, in both HF and OS samples. We found that surface crystals of OS samples are up to several micrometers in size and exclusively made of ε-Fe2O3. Interestingly, these ε-Fe2O3 crystals on the OS sample surface are organized in a periodic two dimensional fashion. These results shed new lights on the actual mechanisms and kinetics of polymorphous transitions of Fe2O3. Deciphering technologies behind the fabrication of ancient Jian wares can thus potentially help researchers improve the ε-Fe2O3 synthesis.
authors.affiliation: 1] ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Crystallography, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland [2] Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA [3].
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dejoie
authors.affiliation: 1] CEMES, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, 31055 Toulouse, France [2].
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sciau
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: CEMES, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, 31055 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Laure
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Noé
authors.affiliation: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Apurva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: 1] Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA [2] Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Shanghai University, Shanghai 200436, China.
authors.forename: Hongjie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kunz
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Nobumichi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: 1] Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA [2] Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu