Sky Blue's the Limit with Novel Pigment Discovery

BluePigment850

As reported online ahead of print in Dyes and Pigments, new inorganic sky-blue pigments have been developed by researchers at Sejong University and Changwon National University, in Korea, and Kochi University and Niigata University, in Japan. Scientists synthesized the pigments in a single phase form by a conventional solid-state reaction method (not described in the article abstract; see April 2017 publication of the article for more details).

According to the article abstract, the pigments, specified as Ca6Ba(P1-xMnx)4O17 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.13), and their color properties were studied in the detail. They were found to exhibit strong optical absorption in the UV and the yellow-red light regions. 

While their color showed low chemical stability for acid/alkali solutions, the pigments exhibited excellent color durability for heat and light. The researchers believe that with improved stability of the color, the pigments could offer an environmentally friendly, sky-blue pigment option.

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