Colours are an important part of our daily lives. From the clothing, cosmetics, and decorations we surround ourselves with to the foods we eat and how we communicate, color is an essential part of life, serving both aesthetic and functional purposes.
As such, manufacturing colors is an important part of industry —but, how is color produced? Colorants for textile and cosmetic manufacturing are produced through the use of pigments.
Pigments are insoluble solid materials that improve the appearance of or give color to a medium. As they are insoluble, they are added to the medium by grinding them into a fine powder and mixing them into the solution.
Pigments change the way light transmits through or reflects off a surface by absorbing certain wavelengths of light.
There are two primary types of pigments —organic and inorganic.
It’s important to understand what these types of pigments are and how they differ.
INORGANIC PIGMENTS
Inorganic pigments are not based on carbon chains and rings. Instead, they consist of dry ground minerals, usually metals and metallic salts. Because of their composition, inorganic pigments are usually more opaque and more insoluble than organic pigments. In general, inorganic pigments are the most commonly used in industry, favored for their lightfastness and low cost.
Inorganic pigments tend to be a popular choice in industry for numerous reasons, but they do have their drawbacks.
Some of the most significant positive properties of inorganic pigments are:
Excellent fade resistance
Cost-effective
Some of the most significant negative properties of inorganic pigments are:
Poor tonality
Toxicity
ORGANIC PIGMENTS
Organic pigments are based on carbon chains and rings. While some contain inorganic elements as stabilizers, organic pigments are defined primarily by this factor. These strong carbon chains also make them highly stable.
Carbon-based pigments are derived from animals, vegetables or synthetic organic chemistry. While traditional pigments were typically created using flora and fauna, the majority of modern pigments are created through synthetic organic chemistry.
Synthetic organic pigments are most commonly derived from aromatic hydrocarbons including coal tars and other petrochemicals.
Organic pigments are marked by the following qualities:
Colour quality
High prices
Varying lightfastness
How To Decide Whether To Use Organic Or Inorganic Pigments?
When it comes to determining which type of pigment to use in your project, you need to consider the differences between organic and inorganic pigments and how they will affect your product. It’s important to consider these factors and rate them in order of importance to decide which type of pigment to use.