YGa1−xMnxO3: A novel purple inorganic pigment

A purple inorganic pigment, YGa1−xMnxO3 (0 < x ≤ 0.10), based on hexagonal YGaO3 is reported here. The metastable series of oxides were prepared by a sol–gel technique where the dried gels, obtained from aqueous solutions of metal nitrate–citric acid mixtures, were calcined for a short duration in a preheated furnace around 850 °C. The purple colour of the oxides arises from the specific trigonal bipyramidal ligand field around MnIII in a YGaO3 host. Other hexagonal RGaO3 hosts for R = Lu, Tm and Ho substituted with MnIII also produce similar purple coloured materials.