X AFS analysis of ancient Chinese porcelain of Honglvcai

Structure analysis of Honglvcai, an overglaze polychrome porcelain produced in China from the Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, has been a blank in studies on ancient Chinese ceramics. This work was focused on the oxidation state and local environment of colorants in red, yellow and green decorations on Honglvcai by X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS). The analysis of Fe K-edge XANES and EXAFS spectra of the red-colored samples indicated that Fe³⁺ was mainly located at a distorted octahedral site in a hematite phase, while that if the yellow-colored samples showed that iron was present as both trivalent and divalent cations coordinated with oxygen atoms in an amorphous phase. And Cu K-edge XAFS analysis of the green-colored samples revealed that Cu²⁺ was the main constituent coordinated with oxygen atoms in an amorphous phase.