Bita Amiri / Chemistry & Biochemistry / Faculty Mentor: Robin Macaluso
The global inorganic pigment industry is valued in the billions and is projected to expand significantly over the coming decades. Inorganic pigments, known for their cost-effectiveness and resistance to fading compared to organic pigments, often lack diversity in color. Additionally, the metals used in these pigments can pose environmental harm and toxicity risks for humans and animals. A major challenge in pigment research is finding methods to control color and shades while using non-toxic metals. Tellurate compounds with Te(VI) are more stable under ambient conditions and less toxic relative to other tellurium compounds, yet they have not been widely adopted as pigments. This poster presents our experimental findings from investigating solid-state tellurate compounds as blue-green pigments. We manipulate the shade between blue and green through metal substitution and demonstrate that optical absorption, measured by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, correlates with the pigment’s chemical composition. We conducted Powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy experiments to examine metal ordering and the impact of synthetic processes on particle size and shape. This research delivers a systematic approach to creating new inorganic pigment materials that possess specific shades and optical characteristics.
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