Scientists say that a thousand-year quest--one that you probably didn't even know about--has accidentally come to an end. Painters and fabric makers can rest easy because Mas Subramanian and his research team at Oregon State University have created a near-perfect blue pigment.
Blue pigments of the past have often been expensive (ultramarine blue was made from the gemstone lapis lazuli, ground up), poisonous (cobalt blue is a possible carcinogen and Prussian blue, another well-known pigment, can leach cyanide) or apt to fade (many of the organic ones fall apart when exposed to acid or heat) [The New York Times].
The new pigment popped up when the researchers were mixing manganese oxide, which is black, with other chemicals and then heating them up to high temperatures to study their electronic properties. One day, Subramanian was poking around in his lab when he noticed a graduate student removing a sample from the furnace that was brilliant blue. The 2,000-degree-Fahrenheit furnace created a crystal structure that allowed the manganese ions to absorb red and green wavelengths of light while reflecting blue wavelengths. White yttrium oxide and pale yellow indium oxide are also required to stabilize the crystal structure. Subramanian said the pigment is safe, but far from cheap, since indium is quite costly, so they are trying to substitute cheaper oxides for indium.
"Basically, this was an accidental discovery," said Subramanian. "We were exploring manganese oxides for some interesting electronic properties they have, something that can be both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic at the same time. Our work had nothing to do with looking for a pigment" [UPI]
. Regardless, their research appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Related Content: 80beats: Tiny Structures in Beetle’s Shell Twist Light, Giving It a Green Sheen 80beats: Chameleonic Synthetic Opal Could Lead to Full-Color Electronic Paper 80beats: Egyptian Archers Dyed Their Quivers 4,000 Years Ago 80beats: New Imaging Technique Shows Parthenon Was Once Brightly PaintedImage: Oregon State University
