Found by Chance, New Blue Pigment Is to Dye For

It was a total surprise discovery, we learn from PhysOrg. Several Oregon State University (OSU) chemists were investigating the electronic properties of magnesium oxide. What they discovered was that they had created a new type of pigment, one that can be produced cheaply, is chemically stable and, perhaps most important, is environmentally safe.

And it came from out of the blue.

Many conventional blue pigments rely on the use of metals such as cadmium, cobalt or copper, or worse, on cyanide.

It is a wildly popular color choice for pigments and dyes, and the production of a pigment that yields a good, pleasing and durable shade of blue has consistently come with some unpleasant and unhealthful side effects.

The OSU team just happened to notice that on the other side of time spent at temperatures approximating 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, their samples of magnesium oxide had emerged a decidedly eye-catching shade of blue.

OSU chemistry professor Mas Subramanian is quoted by PhysOrg in characterizing how events unfolded from intrigued curiosity to pleasant surprise at having achieved a beneficial yet wholly unintended innovation:

"Basically, this was an accidental discovery. 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. Then one day a graduate student who is working in the project was taking samples out of a very hot furnace while I was walking by, and it was blue, a very beautiful blue. I realized immediately that something amazing had happened."

The new, manganese-based blue pigment resists heat and acid, and can be manufactured from readily available and inexpensive raw materials. And this is a shade of blue that is, in addition, green: none of the environmental or health hazards that are associated with most conventional blue pigments are present in the OSU innovation.

Photo courtesy of FK1954, via Wikimedia Commons