Posted on 11/27/2009 10:40:14 PM PST by neverdem
Blue is sometimes not an easy color to make.
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).
So it was a pleasant surprise to chemists at Oregon State University when they created a new, durable and brilliantly blue pigment by accident.
The researchers were trying to make compounds with novel electronic properties, mixing manganese oxide, which is black, with other chemicals and heating them to high temperatures.
Then Mas Subramanian, a professor of material sciences, noticed that one of the samples that a graduate student had just taken out of the furnace was blue.
I was shocked, actually, Dr. Subramanian said...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“The bluest skies you’ll ever see are in Seattle” — yah, sure.
Agree. It should be “the bluest skies you’ve never seen are in Seattle”.
Is it just a coincidence that excited a producing “blue” in a blue state?
The Brothers leaving Joliet ...
Thanks for the link.
It’s a catchy song.
If it burns blue, this is a major advancement for fireworks. Blue cannot be done at present from what I know and is the elusive color.
I LOVE that movie.
The last time I saw it I was in the hospital - in stitches - and I got laughing so hard I had to turn off the television.
Some years ago, barium manganate, manganese blue (Pigment Blue 33 to colourmen and chemists) was available to artists. It is the most beautiful cyan blue you can imagine, almost exactly the color of process blue. It was removed from production when it was determined its manufacturing process was too polluting. It was once used to dye concrete, but was also used in oil and watercolor paints.
I still have some tubes of it. Almost no paint companies still carry it.
Old Holland still carries it. I understand this paint company's owner bought up the last of this rare and beautiful pigment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.