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Chrome yellow is a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

in paints using monoclinic

lead(II) chromate Lead(II) chromate is the inorganic compound with the formula ( Pb Cr O4). It has a vivid yellow color and is generally insoluble. Two polymorphs of lead chromate are known, orthorhombic and the more stable monoclinic form. Monoclinic lead chrom ...

(PbCrO₄). It occurs naturally as the mineral

crocoite Crocoite is a mineral consisting of lead chromate, Pb Cr O4, and crystallizing in the monoclinic crystal system. It is identical in composition with the artificial product chrome yellow used as a paint pigment. Description Crocoite is commo ...

but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist

Louis Vauquelin Prof. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE (16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829) was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of both chromium and beryllium. Early life Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, F ...

discovered the new element

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

in 1797

lead chromate Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, l ...

was synthesized in the laboratory and used as a pigment beginning in the second decade of the nineteenth century. Chrome yellow had been commonly made by mixing solutions of lead nitrate and

potassium chromate Potassium chromate is the inorganic compound with the formula K2 CrO4. This yellow solid is the potassium salt of the chromate anion. It is a common laboratory chemical, whereas sodium chromate is important industrially. Structure Two crystal ...

and filtering off the lead chromate precipitate. The pigment tends to react with

hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...

and darken on exposure to air over time, forming

lead sulfide Lead sulfide refers to two compounds containing lead and sulfur: * Lead(II) sulfide, PbS, containing lead in the +2 oxidation state, naturally occurring as the mineral galena *Lead(IV) sulfide Lead(IV) sulfide is a chemical compound with the formu ...

, and it contains the toxic heavy metal

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

plus the toxic,

carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

ic chromate. For these reasons, it was replaced by another pigment, cadmium yellow (mixed with enough cadmium orange to produce a color equivalent to chrome yellow). Darkening may also occur from reduction by

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...

. Good quality pigments have been

coated A coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, usually referred to as the substrate. The purpose of applying the coating may be decorative, functional, or both. Coatings may be applied as liquids, gases or solids e.g. Powder ...

to inhibit contact with gases that can change their color. Cadmium pigments in turn are increasingly replaced with organic pigments such as arylides (Pigment Yellow 65) and isoindoles (PY 110). Laidlaw school bus

After working with the natural mineral crocoite, Nicolas Louis Vauqelin was the first to encourage artists to use chrome yellow as a pigment in 1804. The first recorded use of ''chrome yellow'' as a

color name A color term (or color name) is a word or phrase that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context) which is usually defined according to the Munsell color system, or t ...

in English was in 1818.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 192; Color Sample of Chrome Yellow: Page 43 Plate 10 Color Sample L4 By 1888,

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artists like

Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

were using chrome yellow with the other two

primary colors A set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a br ...

. The

Piper J-3 The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

Cub aircraft had chrome yellow as its standard overall color, usually called "Cub Yellow" or "Lock Haven Yellow" in aviation circles, from the Piper factory that existed in

Lock Haven, Pennsylvania Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven Micropolitan Statistical Area, ...

, where it was made in the 1930s and during World War II. Chrome yellow is a ‘Hero colour’ of the

Holden HQ The Holden HQ series is a range of automobiles that was produced by Holden in Australia from 1971 to 1974. The HQ was released on 15 July 1971, replacing the Holden HG series. It was the first ground-up redesign of the Holden line since its ori ...

range.

References

External links

Chrome yellow
Colourlex

Nature Chemistry, 5(11), 2013, 897–897. doi:10.1038/nchem.1789 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chrome Yellow Inorganic pigments Lead(II) compounds Chromates Alchemical substances Shades of yellow

See also

References

Further reading

External links