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For shades of grey you just need titanium dioxide. It is white and not something people worry about if it is in food. For reasons I don't understand, many colo

For shades of grey you just need titanium dioxide. It is white and not something people worry about if it is in food. For reasons I don't understand, many colours need fairly toxic chemicals. Just think of the names. Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue - would you like a bit of strontium nitrate with that? Because we eat food and have children, we can't have all the colours that we used to have. We can't even have lead in paint these days. This is just one factor, and it supports my general belief that progress in fashion/art/design is technology driven. Regarding bland houses, what do you expect when the only people buying homes are doing so in order to rent seek/flip the property? Particularly when IKEA is just a short drive out of town. Cars is the same deal, paint technology has changed to be less toxic and people buying cars aren't buying them with their own money to own forever. They got to get that resale at the end.

projektfu 4y ago
Colors are often toxic because they need to have the ability to absorb many wavelengths and reflect or re-emit particular bands. Transition metals have lots of ability for electrons to move between oxidation states, allowing this absorbtion and re-emission, but many form toxic compounds. Similarly, aromatic compounds, especially those containing nitrogen, have this ability. Unfortunately many are toxic, and many of the less toxic ones fade in the light. That said, toxicity is relative to dose and dose depends on whether these things are free in the environment. A lot of things like cadmium dyes can be effectively trapped and are less toxic than other commonly used chemicals. Long-term, however, such as in a landfill, the story is not as simple. Notably, lead oxide paint was used because it was bright white. Titanium dioxide is not as good but obviously much safer.
- Theodores 4y ago
  Do you mind if I ask you how you know this stuff and where I can get started? I really do want to know more about the chemicals in colours and why, with the history in there too. We get told what the colour wheel is and never what is in the paints when we are at school. I think we would value the materials more if we had any idea of how we got here.
  - projektfu 4y ago
    It's basic organic and maybe advanced inorganic chemistry. The first semester of organic chemistry and probably a higher-level inorganic chemistry course (which is more about where the electrons are than what are the products of reactions). Organic chem is kind of a broad subject but you can start to see why certain patterns have broader absorption spectra and also notice that a lot of azo compounds are pretty toxic. You can learn organic chemistry from a textbook by just reading and doing every problem in the book. There's also some free online courses and Khan Academy. I don't think it's easy learn a lot about inorganic chemistry as an autodidact. Teachers are good at emphasizing the important things so that you don't get lost in the weeds. For reference, you'd be looking at something like MIT's Principles of Inorganic Chemistry I and II (5.03, 5.04) which have organic chemistry I as a prerequisite, which in turn has general chemistry as a prereq. Then, I imagine, you'd be ready to take on anything in the field of dyes.

projektfu 4y ago

Colors are often toxic because they need to have the ability to absorb many wavelengths and reflect or re-emit particular bands. Transition metals have lots of ability for electrons to move between oxidation states, allowing this absorbtion and re-emission, but many form toxic compounds. Similarly, aromatic compounds, especially those containing nitrogen, have this ability. Unfortunately many are toxic, and many of the less toxic ones fade in the light. That said, toxicity is relative to dose and dose depends on whether these things are free in the environment. A lot of things like cadmium dyes can be effectively trapped and are less toxic than other commonly used chemicals. Long-term, however, such as in a landfill, the story is not as simple. Notably, lead oxide paint was used because it was bright white. Titanium dioxide is not as good but obviously much safer.

Theodores 4y ago
Do you mind if I ask you how you know this stuff and where I can get started? I really do want to know more about the chemicals in colours and why, with the history in there too. We get told what the colour wheel is and never what is in the paints when we are at school. I think we would value the materials more if we had any idea of how we got here.
- projektfu 4y ago
  It's basic organic and maybe advanced inorganic chemistry. The first semester of organic chemistry and probably a higher-level inorganic chemistry course (which is more about where the electrons are than what are the products of reactions). Organic chem is kind of a broad subject but you can start to see why certain patterns have broader absorption spectra and also notice that a lot of azo compounds are pretty toxic. You can learn organic chemistry from a textbook by just reading and doing every problem in the book. There's also some free online courses and Khan Academy. I don't think it's easy learn a lot about inorganic chemistry as an autodidact. Teachers are good at emphasizing the important things so that you don't get lost in the weeds. For reference, you'd be looking at something like MIT's Principles of Inorganic Chemistry I and II (5.03, 5.04) which have organic chemistry I as a prerequisite, which in turn has general chemistry as a prereq. Then, I imagine, you'd be ready to take on anything in the field of dyes.