KR101561269B1 - Method of enhancing color of jewelry stone - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a gem color improvement method. The method of enhancing gem color according to the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) placing colored gemstones 100 in a capping layer interior 210; And (b) heat-treating the capping layer (200).

Description

{METHOD OF ENHANCING COLOR OF JEWELRY STONE}

The present invention relates to a gem color improvement method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for enhancing color of a gem that can be adjusted in color or darkness by arranging colored gems in a capping layer and then heat-treating the gem.

Jewelry (stone) is not only scarcity and durability, but also because it is beautiful in color and shine. Because the jewel has a high refractive index, the light that is transmitted through the gem can be bent and reflected, and it will look shiny. Along with this, the color of the jewelry can be made more beautiful by adding the original color of the jewelry. Therefore, a method of increasing the value of the color of jewelry by controlling it as desired is being studied.

Generally, as a method of improving the color of a gem, there is a method of irradiating strong energy such as radiation or electron beam, or artificially diffusing a coloring element.

A method of irradiating a strong energy such as a radiation or an electron beam is a method in which energy is injected to change the lattice structure of the inside of the gem to perform color development. However, the gemstones that have undergone the coloring process have a problem in that they become thinner or return to their original colors when subjected to annealing treatment in low heat or prolonged exposure to sunlight.

Method for diffusing color-developing element artificially is, the beryllium oxide (BeO), iron oxide (Fe ₂ O _3), a heat treatment furnace, such as jewelry and the like of chromium oxide (Cr ₂ O ₃₎ to diffuse to the surface of the jewelry (furnace) And then heat treatment is carried out. However, there has been a problem in that the color is improved only on the surface of the gem, and the color is not improved to the inside of the gem.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gem color improvement method capable of enhancing the color of gems as a whole.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a gem color improvement method capable of easily adjusting the degree of gem color enhancement.

The above object of the present invention is achieved by a method of manufacturing a color filter comprising: (a) placing colored gemstones inside a capping layer; And (b) heat-treating the capping layer.

The colored gemstones may include at least one of corundum, zirconia, diamond, beryl, tourmaline, and the like.

The capping layer may include at least one of oxide, nitride, and graphite.

The oxide is magnesium oxide (MgO), aluminum (Al ₂ O _3), calcium (CaO), silicon dioxide (SiO ₂₎ oxide, iron oxide (Fe ₂ O _3), titanium dioxide (TiO _2), zinc oxide (ZnO oxide ). ≪ / RTI >

The capping layer may be subjected to the heat treatment in a heat treatment furnace using a graphite heating element.

The inside of the heat treatment furnace may be an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere.

The heat treatment temperature may be 1200 ° C to 2200 ° C.

The heat treatment time may be from 1 minute to 100 hours.

The color of the colored gem can be enhanced by the supply of thermal energy by the heat treatment.

The inside of the capping layer can be oxidized by the oxide.

The color of the colored gem can be softened by the oxidizing atmosphere.

According to the present invention configured as described above, there is an effect that color enhancement can be performed on the entire gemstones.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily adjust the degree of color enhancement of gemstones.

1 is a diagram showing a stable crystal structure of blue sapphire.
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the energy transition from the ground state to the excited state of the blue sapphire.
3 is a diagram showing the absorption spectrum of blue sapphire.
4 is a diagram illustrating a method of improving gem color according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a diagram showing a gem color enhancement method according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present invention are different, but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, certain features, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in connection with an embodiment. It is also to be understood that the position or arrangement of the individual components within each disclosed embodiment may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is to be limited only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled, if properly explained. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar functions throughout the several views, and length and area, thickness, and the like may be exaggerated for convenience.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

In the present specification, color enhancement should be understood as a concept including all the color changes such as darkening, softening, or sharpening the color of the gemstone.

In the present invention, the gem must be understood as a concept including colored single crystal gemstones such as corundum, zirconia, diamond, beryl, tourmaline and the like do. Hereinafter, blue sapphire, a kind of corundum, is assumed and explained.

FIG. 1 is a view showing a stable crystal structure of blue sapphire, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing energy transition from a ground state of blue sapphire to an excited state, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an absorption spectrum of blue sapphire.

The corundum (or sapphire) is composed of a single crystal in which crystals having an octahedral structure in which six oxygen anions of the Al ₂ O ₃ constituent are slightly distorted. Among them, natural blue sapphire used as a gemstone is shown in FIG. 1 Hanyang University (2013) reported that blue color occurs mainly due to the incorporation of iron and titanium into the color center [YK Ahn, "The Color Change by Beryllium Diffused and Heat-Treated Corundum from Various Deposits"" Reference].

Iron ions and titanium ions present as impurities in nature can be substituted with aluminum cations of sapphire. When Fe ²⁺ ions and Ti ⁴⁺ ions are substituted with the Al ³⁺ ions of sapphire, the two cations can exchange electrons with each other. Thus, Fe ²⁺ can be converted to Fe ³⁺ , Ti ⁴⁺ can be converted to Ti ³⁺ , and the distance between Fe ³⁺ and Ti ³⁺ can be stabilized to 2.65 Å.

The energy due to the exchange action of the Fe ³⁺ and Ti ³⁺ pairs is 2.11 eV, which is higher than the energy of Fe ²⁺ and Ti ⁴⁺ pairs, and the energy level changes as shown in FIG. 2. Accordingly, an absorption band of yellow portion corresponding to 2.11 eV as shown in FIG. 3 occurs, and an optical characteristic that blue sapphire appears as a complementary color of yellow is transmitted.

As a result, corundum can increase the number of Fe ²⁺ and Ti ⁴⁺ pairs by adding heat energy, strongly expressing blue, or weakly express blue by decreasing the number of Fe ²⁺ and Ti ⁴⁺ pairs. Unlike the method of irradiating strong energy such as the above-mentioned radiation or electron beam or diffusing a coloring element artificially by the heat treatment, the jewel controlled by the color center has the advantage of being circulated without lowering price as natural jewelry.

When heat treatment is performed using a SiC or Mo-based heating element in order to apply heat energy to the corundum, a high temperature of 1600 ° C or higher can be obtained and a higher temperature of 1800 ° C or higher can be obtained by using a super-kanthal heating element . However, since the heating element has a low durability to maintain a temperature of 1600 ° C or more for a long time, the sapphire can not be maintained at a high temperature sufficient for heat treatment, resulting in a yield of less than 50%.

Therefore, in recent years, it is common to use a graphite heating element for a large-volume heat treatment. The graphite heating element has an advantage that it can maintain a high temperature of 1800 ° C or more over a heating element of a metal alloy material for a long time. However, in order to prevent the carbon component of the graphite heating element from being oxidized, heat treatment must be performed in an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere. However, even when heat treatment is performed in an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere, since carbon monoxide formed by oxidizing a trace amount of carbon components has strong reducing power, Al ₂ O ₃ is reduced to Al ₂ O _{3 -x} on the surface of corundum, There is a problem in that the surface of the substrate is blackened.

Accordingly, the present invention is characterized in that the capping layer (200) is provided to heat the gem so that carbon monoxide formed by oxidizing a trace amount of carbon component of the graphite heating element does not cause a reducing action on the surface of the gem (or corundum). The gem color enhancement method of the present invention is characterized in that it includes the steps of disposing the colored gemstones 100 in the capping layer interior 210 and thermally processing the capping layer 200.

4 is a diagram illustrating a method of improving gem color according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, colored jewels 100 are placed in the interior 210 of the capping layer 200.

The colored jewels 100 may include at least one of corundum, zirconia, diamond, beryl, tourmaline, and the like.

The capping layer 200 is formed by oxidizing a trace carbon component of the graphite heating element 20 in the internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 and then removing carbon monoxide generated in the capping layer 200 It is a kind of shielding film which blocks the reaction with the surface of the gemstone 100. The shape of the interior of the capping layer 210 is not limited in the range of purpose in which the colored gem 100 is disposed. The shape of the capping layer 200 is not limited as long as it has a function of blocking carbon monoxide from reacting with the surface of the colored gem 100, such as a sealing plate shape, a crucible shape, and the like.

The capping layer 200 in which the colored gemstones 100 are disposed in the interior 210 is disposed in the internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 and heat-treated. The graphite heating body 20 can be disposed on the inner surface of the heat treatment furnace 10, and the number, size, and the like of the graphite heating body 20 can be adjusted.

The graphite heating body 20 can heat the temperature of the internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 to 1200 ° C to 2200 ° C. The heat treatment can be performed for 1 minute to 100 hours.

It is preferable that the inside 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 maintains an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere so as to prevent the carbon component of the graphite heater body 20 from being oxidized to the utmost. As the inert gas, nitrogen (N ₂ ), argon (Ar), or the like can be used.

The capping layer 200 may be formed of at least one of oxide, nitride, and graphite.

The oxide may be at least one selected from the group consisting of magnesium oxide (MgO), aluminum oxide (Al ₂ O ₃ ), calcium oxide (CaO), silicon dioxide (SiO ₂ ), iron oxide (Fe ₂ O ₃ ), titanium dioxide (TiO ₂ ) Or the like.

The nitride is preferably titanium nitride (TiN), sodium nitride (Na ₃ N), magnesium nitride (Mg ₃ N ₂ ), vanadium nitride (VN), iron nitride (Fe ₄ N) and boron nitride (BN).

When the capping layer 200 is formed of nitride or graphite, the colored jewels 100 disposed in the capping layer interior 210 as the carbon components contained in the graphite heating element 20 are shielded from the surface of the capping layer 200, Can be prevented from being blackened. The colored jewels 100 can be darkened by the heat energy applied in the heat treatment furnace 10 without being blackened. For example, blue sapphire can be strongly expressed in blue by increasing the number of Fe ²⁺ and Ti ⁴⁺ pairs by receiving thermal energy.

If the capping layer 200 is formed of an oxide, the capping layer 210 may become an oxidizing atmosphere during the heat treatment process. That is, the O ^2- ions included in the oxide may be supplied to the colored gem 100 to oxidize the colored gem 100. For example, when the O ^{2 -} ion contained in the oxide is supplied and FeO, which is a coloring element of blue sapphire, is stabilized by Fe ₂ O ₃ , the role of the color center is lost and the blue color can be softened.

As described above, the present invention has an advantage in that the degree of color enhancement of the colored jewels 100 can be easily controlled by changing the material of the capping layer 200.

Hereinafter, a method of improving the color of the colored jewels 100 through various embodiments will be described.

 (Embodiment 1)

In the first embodiment of the present invention, a crucible-shaped graphite mold capping layer 200 is used. A blue colored sapphire 100 was placed inside the capping layer 210. The blue sapphire 100 used a colored jewel 100 having about 40 ppm of FeO. The internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 using the graphite heating element 20 was set to a degree of vacuum of 80 mTorr or less and heat treatment was performed at a temperature of 1900 占 폚 at a heating rate of 5 占 폚 / min for 1 hour.

5 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5A is a photograph of a blue sapphire 100 having a pale color before heat treatment, and FIG. 5B is a photograph of transmission blue light of a blue sapphire after heat treatment.

Referring to FIG. 5 (b), blue sapphire was confirmed using transmission light. As a result, it was confirmed that the inside of the central part was more blue than before the heat treatment.

(Second Embodiment)

In the second embodiment of the present invention, a clad sheet-like capping layer 200 obtained by sintering magnesium oxide (MgO) is used. A green body was made with a magnesium oxide (MgO) powder having a purity of 99.99% having a diameter of 0.3 탆. A hole was drilled to place the blue sapphire 100 in the inside 210, then the hole was closed, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > 200 < / RTI > After the three capping layer 200 specimens were made as described above, the internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 using the graphite heater body 20 was set to a degree of vacuum of 80 mTorr or less, and each of the specimens was heated to 1,650 & , And heat treatment was performed at a temperature of 1900 캜 for 1 hour at a heating rate of 5 캜 / min.

6 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the second embodiment of the present invention. 6 (a) to 6 (c) are photographs of the specimen before heat treatment, and FIGS. 6 (d) to 6 (f) are photographs of the specimen after heat treatment at 1650 ° C., 1750 ° C. and 1900 ° C. .

Referring to FIGS. 6 (d) to 6 (f), it was confirmed that the entire color of the blue sapphire was almost completely removed by heat treatment at 1650 ° C., 1750 ° C. and 1900 ° C. This is because, as described above, O ^2- ions included in magnesium oxide (MgO) of the capping layer 200 are supplied to blue sapphire, and FeO, which is a coloring element of blue sapphire, is stabilized by Fe ₂ O ₃ , The color is lengthened as it is lost.

Also, it was confirmed that the color enhancement can be achieved by the heat treatment process for 1 hour at a wide temperature range of 1650 ° C to 1900 ° C as the color of the three specimens becomes tangible.

(Third Embodiment)

In the third embodiment of the present invention, the capping layer 200 in which the first embodiment and the second embodiment are mixed is used. Referring to FIG. 7, the inner capping layer 201 is made of magnesium oxide (MgO), and the outer capping layer 202 is made of a capping layer 200 including a graphite mold. A blue colored sapphire 100 was placed inside the capping layer 210. The internal space 11 of the heat treatment furnace 10 using the graphite heater body 20 was set to a vacuum degree of 80 mTorr or less and heat treatment was performed at a temperature of 1800 占 폚 for 5 minutes.

8 is a photograph showing the color change of the gem according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 8 (a) shows the blue sapphire before the heat treatment, and Fig. 8 (b) shows the blue sapphire after the heat treatment.

8 (b), the outer capping layer 202 including the graphite mold prevents the diffusion of graphite from the graphite heater body 20 to prevent blackening, and the thermal energy is increased by the addition of Fe ² The number of ⁺ and Ti ⁴⁺ pairs was increased, and blue sapphire with blue color developed properly could be confirmed.

As described above, the present invention can improve the color of the whole color of the colored gem, and can easily control the degree of color improvement of the colored gem.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken in conjunction with the present invention. Variations and changes are possible. Such variations and modifications are to be considered as falling within the scope of the invention and the appended claims.

10: Furnace
11: Internal space of heat treatment furnace
20: graphite heating element
100: Colored jewelry
200: capping layer
210: inner space of the capping layer

Claims (12)

(a) placing colored gemstones in a capping layer comprising at least one of oxide and nitride;
(b) disposing the capping layer inside a heat treatment furnace using a graphite heating element, the inside of the heat treatment furnace being an inert gas atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere; And
(c) heat treating the capping layer;
The method of claim 1, The method according to claim 1,
Characterized in that the colored jew includes at least one of corundum, zirconia, diamond, beryl, tourmaline, How to improve. delete The method according to claim 1,
The oxide is magnesium oxide (MgO), aluminum (Al ₂ O _3), calcium (CaO), silicon dioxide (SiO ₂₎ oxide, iron oxide (Fe ₂ O _3), titanium dioxide (TiO _2), zinc oxide (ZnO oxide ) Of the gem color enhancing method. The method according to claim 1,
The nitride may be at least one of titanium nitride (TiN), sodium nitride (Na ₃ N), magnesium nitride (Mg ₃ N ₂ ), vanadium nitride (VN), iron nitride (Fe ₄ N), and boron nitride ≪ / RTI > delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the heat treatment temperature is 1200 ° C to 2200 ° C. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the heat treatment time is 1 minute to 100 hours. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the color of the colored gemstone is enhanced by the supply of thermal energy by the heat treatment. The method according to claim 1,
And the interior of the capping layer is oxidized by the oxide. 12. The method of claim 11,
And the color of the colored gemstone is softened by the oxidizing atmosphere.

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