Aqueous pigment dispersions

1. A method of forming an aqueous dispersion containing dispersant-laden particles, the method comprising:

(a) providing a raw aqueous composition containing a first plurality of pigment core particles having a first median size within a range of 18 nm to 390 nm, on a volume basis (D V50 ), an outer surface of said pigment core particles being enveloped by, and associated with, dispersant molecules of a dispersant, to form a dispersant envelope;

(b) introducing a dispersant-improving-agent (DIA) to said raw aqueous composition to produce an intermediate aqueous composition, said DIA being a salt of at least one of a fatty acid or a substituted fatty acid, each nominal unit of said salt having a cation and a hydrophobic carbon chain having an anionic moiety associated therewith;

said salt having at least one of the following structural features:

(i) a Griffin hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (G-HLB) number of at least 3.8;

(ii) a Davies hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (D-HLB) number of at least 9.5;

said salt having at least one of the following additional structural features:

(I) a standard critical micelle concentration (CMC) at 25° C. and at a pH of 7 is at most 500 millimoles/liter (mM/1);

(II) a pH dependent CMC at 25° C. and at a pH of the aqueous dispersion of at most 500 mM/1; and

(c) treating said intermediate aqueous composition to produce the aqueous dispersion, said treating including agitating said intermediate aqueous composition,

wherein a second median size on a volume basis (D V50 ) of the dispersant-laden within the aqueous dispersion is within a range of 20 nm to 400 nm.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said providing a raw aqueous composition includes milling an initial plurality of crude pigment particles, in a presence of said dispersant, to produce said first plurality of pigment particles.

3. The method of claim 1 , said treating further including heating said intermediate aqueous composition to a temperature within a range of 40-90° C. for at least 15 minutes.

4. The method of claim 1 , said treating further including maturing said intermediate aqueous composition by heating said intermediate aqueous composition for at least 8 hours at a temperature within a range of 40-80° C.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first median size exceeds said second median size by at most 30 nm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a ratio of said salt to a nominal surface area of said pigment core particles is at most 3.0 g per 1000 m 2 .

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said pigment core particles constitute 2 to 60% by weight, of the aqueous dispersion.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein after aging said intermediate aqueous composition between a first time t 1 and a second time t 2 which is at least 30 days after t 1 , at a temperature T A which is not greater than 80° C., at least one of the following (a), (b), (c), (d-i) and (d-ii) is true:

(a) at a temperature T V which is in the range of 20° C. to 25° C. inclusive, the relationship between a viscosity V 1 of said intermediate aqueous composition, measured at time t 1 , and a viscosity V 2 of said intermediate aqueous composition, measured at time t 2 is such that 0.8V 1 ≤V 2 ≤1.2V 1 ;

(b) at a temperature T V which is in the range of 20° C. to 25° C. inclusive, said viscosities V 1 and V 2 are at most 30 mPa·s;

(c) at a temperature T PS which is in the range of 20° C. to 25° C. inclusive, the relationship between the median particle size at time t 1 , D 50-t1 , and the median particle size at time t 2 , D 50-t2 , is such that 0.8 D 50-t1 ≤D 50-t2 ≤1.2 D 50-t1 ; and

(d) when compared to a reference composition that is devoid of the dispersant improving agent but otherwise identical to the composition that contains the DIA and which has been maintained under the same conditions, at least one of (i) and (ii) is true:

(i) at a temperature T V which is in the range of 20° C. to 25° C. inclusive, the relationship between a viscosity V R measured at time t 2 for the reference composition and a viscosity V 2 of the DIA-containing composition measured at time t 2 is such that V 2 ≤0.8V R ; and

(ii) at a temperature T PS which is in the range of 20° C. to 25° C. inclusive, the relationship between the quantities D 50-t1 , D 50-t2 , D 50-t1-Ref , D 50-t2-Ref , is such that D 50-t1 ≈D 50-t1-Ref ≤D 50-t2 <D 50-t2-Ref

wherein D 50-t1 is the median particle size at time t 1 of particles of the composition, D 50-t2 is the median particle size at time t 2 of particles of the composition D 50-t2 , D 50-t1-Ref is the median particle size at time t 1 of particles of the reference composition, and D 50-t1-Ref is the median particle size at time t 2 of particles of the reference composition.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said DIA is present in an amount sufficient to achieve at least one of the following: (a) increase a viscosity stability of the aqueous dispersion relative to the aqueous dispersion without said DIA; and (b) decrease an amount of dispersant necessary to form said aqueous dispersion relative to said aqueous dispersion without the DIA.