Color plays a major role in influencing our emotions and reactions to people, things, and ideas.
The color in today’s materials comes from the colorants which include pigments and pigments. Since ancient times, dyes have been used for dyeing, although in those times they were obtained from nature. The discovery of the industrial production of color from coal tar and petroleum distillates revolutionized the coloring industry. A variety of dyes and pigments have become available in the market with each having its own sectors of application.
Dyes and dyes differ from each other with the main difference being the water solubility of pigments unlike their counterpart, pigments. Dyes have an affinity for the substrate and can be adsorbed or chemically interacted with the substrate. Many factors determine which category a dye falls into such as chemical composition, origin, nuclear structure, application methods, and its industrial classification. One example of a dye and its corresponding substrate that may be given here are direct dyes and their substrates of cellulose, cotton and blends. Today’s dyeing techniques have also increased the multi-fold and include batik dyeing, bale dyeing, bundle dyeing, string dyeing, spot dyeing and so on. Although dyes are used in a variety of applications today, a large portion of them goes to the country’s textile industry while the remainder is used in the paper and leather industry.
Pigments against dyes are insoluble in water and oil. Dyes are responsible for imparting color to many items; However, its largest consumer is the manufacture of paints, printing inks and coatings. Dyes are classified based on chemical structure, color, source, and application. Based on the chemical structure, pigments are divided into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Dyes are divided into natural and synthetic based on where they are purchased. Besides these categories, dyes are also categorized into elongated dyes and functional colorants depending on their application.
As for organic dyes, there are an infinite number of them, and many of them are rarely or rarely used today. Organic dye manufacturers list phthalocyanine dyes, azo dyes, quinacridone dyes, and lake dyes as the most widely used in their class. These categories provide a myriad of shades and hues for various applications with each category contributing different colors. Blue pigment manufacturers would be most interested in producing the Pthalocyanine class of pigments that give green and blue shades.
The terms dyes and pigments are often used loosely to refer to the colors that appear in fabrics, food, paints, etc., but they are all different from each other. Anyway, the fact remains that they both go to make today’s world a little hotter!