In this study, a cobalt sulfate ceramic coating was sintered on various clays at 1250˚C. The specimen characteristics were investigated by X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), TG-DTA, UV-vis spectrophotometer, and HRDPM. The ceramic coating had a constant thickness of thousands μm, and the surface was confirmed to be densely fused. Other new compounds were produced by the cobalt sulfate sintering process and reactions. These compounds were a CoAl2O4 phase, Co2SiO4 phase, anorthite(CaAl2Si2O8) phase, and FeAl2O4 phase, respectively. UV properties of the coated specimen were investigated, celadon clay specimen in 530-550 nm band is showing a dark gray color. The white clay and white mix clay specimen in 460-500 nm band is showing a blue color. The cobalt-aluminate(CoAl2O4) spinel and the cobalt-silicate olivine(Co2SiO4) were the strongest of the ceramic pigments, producing a very pure, navy blue color.

Nanostructured cobalt materials have recently attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in high-density data storage, magnetic separation and heterogeneous catalysts. The size as well as the morphology at the nano scale strongly influences the physical and chemical properties of cobalt nano materials. In this study, cobalt nano particles synthesized by a a polyol process, which is a liquid-phase reduction method, were investigated. Cobalt hydroxide (Co(OH)2), as an intermediate reaction product, was synthesized by the reaction between cobalt sulphate heptahydrate (CoSO4·7H2O) used as a precursor and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) dissolved in DI water. As-synthesized Co(OH)2 was washed and filtered several times with DI water, because intermediate reaction products had not only Co(OH)2 but also sodium sulphate (Na2SO4), as an impurity. Then the cobalt powder was synthesized by diethylene glycol (DEG), as a reduction agent, with various temperatures and times. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), as a capping agent, was also added to control agglomeration and dispersion of the cobalt nano particles. The optimized synthesis condition was achieved at 220˚C for 4 hours with 0.6 of the PVP/Co(OH)2 molar ratio. Consequently, it was confirmed that the synthesized nano sized cobalt particles had a face centered cubic (fcc) structure and with a size range of 100-200 nm.