Monday, April 26, 2010

Van Gogh and technology: chrome yellow paint

Chrome Yellow is a natural yellow pigment made of lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It was first extracted from the mineral crocoite by the French chemist Louis Vauquelin in 1809. Because the pigment tends to oxidize and darken on exposure to air over time, and it contains lead, a toxic, heavy metal, it has been largely replaced by another pigment, Cadmium Yellow (mixed with enough Cadmium Orange to produce a color equivalent to chrome yellow).[2]

Chrome yellow is commonly produced by mixing solutions of lead nitrate and potassium chromate and filtering off the lead chromate precipitate.

The first recorded use of chrome yellow as a color name in English was in 1818. [3]

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