Patent ID: 7713350

Claim:
An inorganic pigment comprising nanopowder particles having at least two metals, wherein the nanopowder particles having at least two metals comprise vanadium and at least one additional element selected from actinium, aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, calcium, cerium, cesium, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, gallium, gold, hafnium, boron, germanium, indium, nitrogen, phosphorus, selenium, sulfur, tellurium, iridium, iron, lanthanum, lithium, magnesium, manganese, mendelevium, mercury, molybdenum, neodymium, neptunium, nickel, niobium, osmium, palladium, platinum, potassium, praseodymium, promethium, protactinium, rhenium, rubidium, scandium, silver, sodium, strontium, tantalum, terbium, thallium, thorium, tin, titanium, tungsten, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium; wherein the nanopowder exhibits transparency to a visible wavelength of light that differs by more than 20% as compared with transparency to the visible wavelength of light exhibited by nanopowders of similar composition with nanopowders having a domain size of at least one micron; and wherein the inorganic pigment has a powder size of less than 100 nanometers.