title: A general method for the quantitative assessment of mineral pigments.
abstract: A general method for the estimation of mineral pigment contents in different bases has been proposed using a sole set of calibration curves, (one for each pigment), calculated for a white standard base, thus elaborating patterns for each utilized base is not necessary. The method can be used in different bases and its validity had ev en been proved in strongly tinted bases. The method consists of a novel procedure that combines diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, second derivatives and the Kubelka-Munk function. This technique has proved to be at least one order of magnitude more sensitive than X-Ray diffraction for colored compounds, since it allowed the determination of the pigment amount in colored samples containing 0.5 wt% of pigment that was not detected by X-Ray Diffraction. The method can be used to estimate the concentration of mineral pigments in a wide variety of either natural or artificial materials, since it does not requiere the calculation of each pigment pattern in every base. This fact could have important industrial consequences, as the proposed method would be more convenient, faster and cheaper.
authors.affiliation: Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, E.P.S. of Belmez, University of Córdoba, E14240, Spain.
authors.forename: M C Zurita
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ares
authors.affiliation: Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, E.P.S. of Belmez, University of Córdoba, E14240, Spain; Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences, University of Córdoba, E14071, Spain. Electronic address: um1feroj@uco.es.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fernández
keywords: Colored mortars; Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy; Kubelka–Munk function; Mineral pigments; Second derivative