Bright pigment

#The present invention relates to a bright pigment with a pearly luster or a metallic luster. The present invention relates also to a resin composition, a paint, a printing ink, and a coated product, each containing the bright pigment.

#The bright pigments are used widely for various applications, such as automobiles, motorcycles, OA (office automation) machines, cellular phones and home electric appliances, printing matters and writing tools, for the purpose of improving the cosmetic appearance thereof.

#As bright pigments, there have been conventionally known mica flakes and graphite flakes each coated with metal oxides such as titanium dioxide and iron oxide, iron oxide particles composed mainly of alpha-iron oxide crystals, and the like. Such a bright pigment reflects light incident from the outside upon its surface and shines brilliantly. Therefore, the bright pigment gives an unique, varied and excellent cosmetic appearance, when contained in a paint, to the coated surfaces, when contained in an ink, to the drawn lines or the printed surfaces, or when contained in a resin composition, to the surfaces of resin molded product, in synergy with the color tones of each of the base.

#FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a bright pigment according to the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the principle for evaluating color difference.

#FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a mechanism of reaction between an oxazoline group and a carboxyl group.

#FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a bright pigment according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the bright pigment 100 with a pearly luster includes a flaky substrate 10, a titanium dioxide layer (first layer) 20, a neodymium-containing layer (second layer) 30, and a surface layer 40. These layers are stacked on the flaky substrate 10 in this order.

#The titanium dioxide layer 20 contains titanium dioxide as its main component and is a layer coating the flaky substrate 10 directly. The flaky substrate 10 may be coated with a silver-containing layer 11 that contains silver or a silver alloy as its main component instead of the titanium dioxide layer 20. The “main component” herein means a component with the highest content by mass %.

#The neodymium-containing layer 30 contains the hydroxide or hydrated oxide of neodymium and is a layer coating the titanium dioxide layer 20. The neodymium-containing layer 30 may contain a hydroxide or hydrated oxide of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, cerium, tungsten, aluminum, zirconium, molybdenum and vanadium in addition to the hydroxide or hydrated oxide of neodymium.