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| Ruro |
 Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject: Pigments; Material's Colours! |
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Forum Freshman
Joined: 21 Mar 2008
Posts: 5
Location: England
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Hi folks! First time poster here, this Forum looks great!
Recently I keep exploring Wikipedia for information, and I keep having questions, so it'd be great if I could offload one or two here - as for this question forthcoming, I cannot locate the answer on the aforementioned Site, or via Google searches :/
It's about Pigments! Pigments are Molecules, like a Haem/Heme or a Chlorin, so how on Earth do Pure Elements right off of the Periodic Table have colours? They aren't composed of different Atoms, all the Atoms are the same, with the same number of Electrons etc. for each one.
It's just mind boggling. I first concluded these Chlorin Molecules and stuff are located on Plants, bundled together with the standard Molecules that construct the plant. But Pure Potassium doesn't have Magnesium and stuff bundled together to create a pigment, to give it colour, it defies the concept of it being an Element by definition.
Thanks for any information you can spare ^_^;; And apologies for any "Facts" I have presented which turn out to be.... well, Fiction, it's just what I read/assume.
(Btw, before posting, I had a quick look at some other threads, and they aren't... well, I'm not the only person with a simple "could be reduced to one sentence" question, so I'm feeling better, lol) |
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| i_feel_tiredsleepy |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Senior
Joined: 21 Mar 2008
Posts: 376
Location: Montreal
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| Well I'm no chemist, but colour is just a result of which wavelengths of light are reflected, something doesn't necessarily have to be a complex macromolecule to absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others as far as I see it. I think the colour of these elements in pure form has to do with the structure of their electron bands. |
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| SteveF |
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:08 am Post subject: |
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Forum Senior
Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 367
Location: NC USA
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Color can arise from a great variety of mechanisms such as the reflection, absorption, and transmission of light, or from iridescence and colloidal scattering. Let's not leave out phosphorescence, which is how a television screen might work. Then there's refraction, diffraction, and interference of light; also luminescence and even incandescence.
The point is that it is self-deceptive to assume that if some substances (pigments) give rise to color, then only similar compounds can be colored. Pigments use one method of handling light, other materials (e.g. the blue sky) use a different method to produce color.
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| Ruro |
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Freshman
Joined: 21 Mar 2008
Posts: 5
Location: England
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| SteveF wrote: |
| Color can arise from a great variety of mechanisms such as [...] |
It's these Mechanisms that I am curious about, what is it that constructs these, they must be smaller then an Atom? Something must define the Properties delivering (albeit as a result of something else, reflecting, refracting etc. off) the Colour a Pure Element displays.
| i_feel_tiredsleepy wrote: |
| I think the colour of these elements in pure form has to do with the structure of their electron bands. |
That's more like it ^^ Sounds good, I swear this wasn't covered on any of the Wikipedia pages. Yes, it's the not Kingdom of all Knowledge... it's just never let me down like this *Cries* 
Anyway, with that to go on, I'll do some more googley searching shortly.
Thank you thus far, anyone with more wisdom on the topic, it'd be much appreciated if you can share. |
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| goodgod3rd |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:14 am Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 898
Location: Donegal Ireland
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What i understand has been stated i suppose.
Light comes in excites electrons to a higher orbital (due to the energy given by say a photon). This electron wants to be at a lower energy so it falls back down, emitting the light as energy of a certain wave length.
So energy is put into the electron, it rises contains that energy to a new higher orbit, and then falls back down, emitting the energy.
Colours from pigments are the energy being omitted, which our eyes can detect.
thats my basic understanding from year two physchem.
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