Pigments are elements we find in our day-to-day tools, clothes, and even food products. So let’s read into why pigments are used in our daily items and its importance.
What are pigments?
Simply stated, pigments are referred to a material which holds a distinctive colour which is nearly insoluble in water. Pigments is a compound which is more often found in a powdery state. But is generally found in a liquid state, known as dyes. Pigments hold and attain a variety of colour simply by disseminating and transferring different wavelengths of light, creating an array of colours.
We have managed to apply pigments in various industries by mixing pigments with binders to attach them to a substrate.
Given the colourful nature of pigments, we have already acknowledged that these elements have been quite useful across multiple industries which focus on different applications. Spanning from plastics, paint, cloths and is even used in the food industry to add a compelling factor to the final products.
Evolution of the use of Pigments
Throughout history, colours have consistently been focused through all forms of art. Initially being highlighted in paintings created throughout centuries, as pigments were a vital element in developing paint for art. Developing throughout history the use of pigments expanded and was utilized in developing technologies over the years.
Even in today’s society we find pigments being used in our daily equipment, from a smartphone to a personal computer. Pigments are used in developing the colours of the outer body of these machinery and even in a simple tool such as a phone’s protective case.
When we search deeper, we can see that every screen produces various shades of colours with the aid of pigments.
Preserving pigments & their colour
Pigments display a wide range of colours by absorbing a certain wavelength of visible light and reflecting or scattering the light, the particular light spectrum which is reflected expresses a particular distinctive colour. The colours are rich and give a vibrant look at the initial stages, but after extensive experimentations and research, certain external factors have been found which affect the disseminated colours and degrades the colour.
Factors such as, air quality, relative humidity, various light sources, temperature, pollutants, chemical and organic compounds have been recognized amongst other factors which affect and degrades a pigment’s colours.
To preserve and make colours have a durable use, scientist and well trained chemical engineers have been at work to produce colour with a high absorbent rate, to reduce the rate of degradation.
Vantablack is one such example, being discovered back in 2014 by researchers at Surrey NanoSystems which absorbed 99.965%. And not far after, in 2019 a couple of MIT engineers went a step ahead to discover a foil that would absorb 99.995%.
Likewise, many experts have been at work to find new methods to preserve colours.
At Hayleys Aventura (Haycolour), we too offer an array of ‘Colour Pigment’ solutions, with unmatched quality standards, which help us to maintain a durable colour standard with low degradation levels.
For further info. contact us on: +94 77 594 0449
Sources: https://inchemistry.acs.org/atomic-news/chemistry-of-pigments.html