Pigment
hideA pigment is the material that changes the color of light it reflects as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light.
Many materials selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light. Materials that humans have chosen and developed for use as pigments usually have special properties that make them ideal for coloring other materials. A pigment must have a high tinting strength relative to the materials it colors. It must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures.
For industrial applications, as well as in the arts, permanence and stability are desirable properties. Pigments that are not permanent are called fugitive. Fugitive pigments fade over time, or with exposure to light, while some eventually blacken.
Pigments are used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fabric, cosmetics, food and other materials. Most pigments used in manufacturing and the visual arts are dry colourants, usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a vehicle (or matrix), a relatively neutral or colorless material that acts as a binder.
The worldwide market for inorganic, organic and special pigments had a total volume of around 7.4 million tons in 2006. Asia has the highest rate on a quantity basis followed by Europe and North America. In 2006, a turnover of 17.6 billion US$ (13 billion Euro) was reached mostly in Europe, followed by North America and Asia.
A distinction is usually made between a pigment, which is insoluble in the vehicle (resulting in a suspension), and a dye, which either is itself a liquid or is soluble in its vehicle (resulting in a solution). The term biological pigment is used for all colored substances independent of their solubility. A colorant can be both a pigment and a dye depending on the vehicle it is used in. In some cases, a pigment can be manufactured from a dye by precipitating a soluble dye with a metallic salt. The resulting pigment is called a lake pigment.
For more information about Pigment, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with pigment
Clinical trials of spray-on skin to start in US
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Clinical trials comparing a spray-on skin product with skin grafts will start in the US in December. The trials, which are partly funded by a US army grant of $1.4 million, will last about a year and will ...
Ancestry attracts, but love is blind
Nov 20, 2009 |
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People preferentially marry those with similar ancestry, but their decisions are not necessarily based on hair, eye or skin colour. Research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology, shows that M ...
Modern Turkey: Modern Miracle
Nov 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Many of us will sit down with our families to a wonderful turkey dinner this Thanksgiving. But statistics increasingly show that Americans consider turkey a year-round staple.
Accidental discovery produces durable new blue pigment for multiple applications
Nov 16, 2009 |
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An accidental discovery in a laboratory at Oregon State University has apparently solved a quest that over thousands of years has absorbed the energies of ancient Egyptians, the Han dynasty in China, Mayan ...
Long-term statin use associated with decreased risk of gallstones requiring surgery
Nov 10, 2009 |
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Use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins for more than a year is associated with a reduced risk of having gallstones requiring surgery, according to a study in the November 11 issue of JAMA.
Cellular Source of Most Common Type of Abnormal Heart Beat Found
Nov 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- While studying how the heart is formed, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most ...
Scientists Make Ink Disappear, Make Paper Reusable
Oct 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite ongoing efforts to save the trees, many offices print high volumes of paper documents on a daily basis. Although many companies encourage paper recycling, both disposing of and recycling ...
Blue roses to debut in Japan
Oct 20, 2009 |
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Which colour would you like your roses? Red, white, yellow... or perhaps blue?
New findings on the formation of body pigment
Oct 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The skin's pigment cells can be formed from completely different cells than has hitherto been thought, a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows. The results, which are published ...
Researchers discover mechanism that helps humans see in bright and low light
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 13, 2009 |
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Ever wonder how your eyes adjust during a blackout? When we go from light to near total darkness, cells in the retina must quickly adjust. Vision scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. ...
Afib triggered by a cell that resembles a pigment-producing skin cell
Oct 12, 2009 |
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The source and mechanisms underlying the abnormal heart beats that initiate atrial fibrillation (Afib), the most common type of abnormal heart beat, have not been well determined. However, a group of researchers at the University ...
Retinal rescue: Cells derived from human embryonic stem cells reverse retinal degeneration
Oct 01, 2009 |
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A new study reports that transplanted pigment-containing visual cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) successfully preserved structure and function of the specialized light-sensitive lining of the eye (known ...
Tiny ancient shells point to earliest fashion trend
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Aug 27, 2009 |
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Shell beads newly unearthed from four sites in Morocco confirm early humans were consistently wearing and potentially trading symbolic jewellery as early as 80,000 years ago. These beads add significantly to similar finds ...
Iridescence found in 40-million-year-old fossil bird feather
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Aug 26, 2009 |
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Known for their wide variety of vibrant plumage, birds have evolved various chemical and physical mechanisms to produce these beautiful colors over millions of years. A team of paleontologists and ornithologists ...
Parkinson's disease: Iron accumulation to the point of demise
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Aug 19, 2009 |
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Neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine are the cerebral cells that most commonly die-off in Parkinson's disease. The cells in the so-called substantia nigra, which contain the dark pigment neuromelanin, are affected. ...
