Traditional inorganic pigments have limitations in terms of colour saturation and weathering resistance, and the development of new pigments has become a breakthrough point. Nanoscale inorganic pigments are emerging as a new type of pigment. With ultra-small particle size (usually less than 100nm), they can be dispersed more uniformly on the surface of the glass, which makes the glaze layer more pure and saturated in colour. Such as nano titanium yellow pigment, compared with the traditional titanium yellow, the colour is brighter after high temperature sintering, and the anti-ultraviolet degradation ability is increased by more than 30%, which guarantees that the colour of architectural glass façade won't be faded for ten years.
At the same time, composite inorganic pigments are emerging, through a variety of metal oxides co-mingled to create a unique colour system. For example, cobalt, nickel and iron oxides can be compounded to create transitional colours ranging from deep sea blue to emerald green, providing a richer choice of colours for architectural design and breaking the traditional impression of ceramic frit glass as a single colour.

Glaze carrier (mainly glass powder, ceramic powder, etc.) is no longer limited to the basic function of ‘carrying pigment, bonding glass’. New carriers to introduce functional components, such as adding hollow beads in the carrier, can reduce the thermal conductivity of the glaze, enhance the thermal insulation performance of the glass; add antibacterial ceramic powder (such as silver antibacterial agent loaded ceramic particles), so that ceramic frit glass with antibacterial function, suitable for hospitals, food processing plants and other special places in the construction of the decorative glass to give ‘health protection’ properties. It is suitable for hospitals, food processing workshops and other special places, giving the glass the property of ‘health protection’. Traditional energy-saving glaze focuses on ‘sunshade coefficient control’, by adding metal monomers (e.g., silver, copper) or compounds, reflecting solar radiation heat. The new generation of energy-saving glazes moves towards ‘active energy management’ by introducing phase change materials (e.g. paraffin-based microencapsulated phase change materials). When the ambient temperature changes, the phase change material absorbs and releases heat in the glaze layer, regulating temperature fluctuations in the room. In summer, the phase change material absorbs heat and stores it; in winter, it releases heat to assist in building heating, making ceramic frit glass a ‘smart thermoregulation skin’.
In addition, photovoltaic-integrated glazes have become a new direction. Embedded in the glaze micro-CdTe and CaTiO2 photovoltaic cells, the glass not only maintains the decorative properties, but also converts solar energy into electricity, realising ‘self-generated self-consumption’ energy supply for the building, and promoting the building towards the goal of ‘zero-carbon’.

Safety enhancement is an important dimension of material innovation for ceramic frit glass. Traditional safety glazes improve the impact resistance of glass by increasing the thickness of the glaze layer and optimising the sintering process, but they are limited in extreme disasters (e.g. fire, explosion). The introduction of new safety glaze intumescent flame retardant components, in case of fire, the glaze layer rapidly expanded to form a thermal insulation fire layer, blocking the flame and heat transfer, for high-rise buildings glass curtain wall to provide a ‘fire barrier’.
At the same time, self-healing glaze R & D progress. Glaze layer added microencapsulated repair agent, when the glass due to external forces produce small cracks, microcapsule rupture, repair agent outflow and fill the cracks, restore the integrity of the glass, extend the service life of ceramic frit glass, reduce maintenance costs.

In the future, ceramic frit glass material innovation will evolve towards ‘ecological and synergistic’ direction. On the one hand, to build a full life cycle of environmentally friendly materials system, from raw material mining to product recycling, to reduce the environmental impact, such as research and development of degradable glaze carrier, harmless pigments; on the other hand, to promote the synergy of cross-field materials, and smart glass, flexible electronic materials, to develop the ‘glass - electronics - functional glaze’ integrated products, to provide material support for the emerging fields of intelligent architecture, wearable devices and so on. On the other hand, we will promote cross-field material synergy, combine with smart glass and flexible electronic materials to develop integrated products of ‘glass - electronics - functional glaze’, and provide material support for emerging fields such as intelligent architecture and wearable devices, so that ceramic frit glass will grow from a single building material to a ‘material engine’ for innovation in multiple fields.