An Investigation of Nanoparticles in Contemporary Lustres on Modern Iznik Tiles

Abstract

Lustre is defined as "metal-glass nanocomposite thin layer composed by dispersing copper or silver nano particles in silica based glassy matrix". The technique is based on a specific firing of ceramic in a reducing atmosphere in the presence of metallic salts. The result is a surface layer with iridescent reflections of various colours. In the literature, production of lustre in glazed Iznik ceramics has never been reported. In this paper, it is aimed to obtain a lustre layer on tiles fabricated with the formula and procedure copied from the archaeological Iznik tiles. Firstly, modern Iznik tiles were produced using traditional methods simulating archaeological ones. Afterwards, contemporary lustre layer was fabricated using laboratory controlled conditions on high quartz content body and lead alkali-glazed modern Iznik tile. A study was carried out on the produced lustre layer using numerous different analytical characterisation techniques. Lustre film was formed by silver clusters of nanometric dimension.