LUXAN effect pigments belong to the group of pearlescent effect pigments that are composed of low refractive transparent substrates coated with high refractive metal oxides, e.g., titanium dioxide or iron oxide. This layered structure enables interference effects, creating the typical pearl luster as frequently found in nature. For decades, natural mica was the state-of-the-art substrate for those pearlescent pigments, but mica shows some basic deficiencies, such as naturally occurring deviations of the chemical composition, irregularly shaped platelets with many edges, and thickness deviations within single mica particles. These deviations lead to undesirable scattering phenomena and inhomogeneous interference colours.
In contrast, LUXAN pigments are based on artificial borosilicate platelets with a well-defined chemical composition and a uniform individual particle thickness. This homogeneous thickness of the individual glassflakes and also the total thickness (approximately 1 µm), which minimizes the influence of the carrier on the final interference colour of the metal oxide-coated effect pigment, leads to very uniform and pure interference colours.