Cadmium yellow pigments are stable, inorganic colouring agents which are produced in a range of rich, vibrant shades of yellow, orange, red, and maroon. Modern day pigments are carefully engineered products manufactured in regulated chemical plants with full Health and Safety and Environmental permits under Responsible Care management and adherence. These cadmium yellow pigments have a carefully defined and engineered particle size, crystal structure, surface area and surface treatment to ensure they are not only correct for colour but also meet extremely low solubility and other key property limits.
The pigment chemistry is based on solid solutions of Cd,Zn, S, Se formed by calcining at high temperature to convert fully to a crystalline and stable hexagonal form, before undergoing a series of further treatments resulting in highly engineered pigment grade products.
These properties make cadmium yellow pigments unique. Being difficult to substitute, they are typically the materials of choice for ceramic, glass and metal decoration, plastic colouration and for the professional artist including restoration work.
Applications
Cadmium yellow pigments find niche applications in market segments where their unique blend of properties of clean colour shade, intensity, opacity, heat and light resistance and long-term stability are paramount.
Plastics
Cadmium yellow pigments have inherent high temperature resistance because of their method of manufacture and may therefore be used routinely in polymers which are processed at or above 300ºC e.g. polycarbonate, nylons and PTFE. Further, because of this high temperature resistance, all moulding sprues and off-cuts can be recycled whereas an organic may already be starting to undergo decomposition during moulding and be unable to withstand further heating.
This article comes from cadmium edit released