几个世纪以来发现的第一个蓝色颜料进入了市场
Back in 2009, a bunch of chemists accidentally cooked up a unique and brilliantly blue pigment said to be the first new blue pigment discovered in 200 years. Now, after jumping some regulatory loopholes, the much-loved pigment is now seeing the light of day.
2009年，一群化学家意外地合成了一种独特而明亮的蓝色颜料，据说这是200年来发现的第一个新的蓝色颜料。现在，在突破了一些监管漏洞后，这款备受喜爱的颜料终于问世了。
The pigment — nicknamed YInMn — was fully approved for commercial use under the US Toxic Substances Control Act in May 2020 and is now making its way onto artists’ canvases, Artnet reports. A number of art suppliers have already started producing the pigment, including Kremer Pigmente, Golden Artist Colors, and Shepherd Color, but it’s said to remain extremely expensive and relatively rare. One shop was reported to sell 40 millimeters (less than a shot glass) of the paint for $179.40.
据Artnet报道，这种昵称为YInMn的颜料在2020年5月被美国《有毒物质控制法》完全批准用于商业用途，现在正在艺术家的画布上使用。许多艺术供应商已经开始生产这种颜料，包括Kremer Pigmente、金色艺术家颜料和牧羊人颜料，但据说这种颜料仍然非常昂贵，而且相对稀少。据报道，一家商店以179.40美元的价格出售了40毫米(不到一个烈酒杯)的油漆。
Tom Hale
Crayola announced in May 2017 that it was going to replace its retired “Dandelion” yellow color crayon with a new crayon "inspired by" the color of YInMn, although the crayon didn’t contain the actual pigment.
克雷奥拉公司于2017年5月宣布，该公司将用一款“受茵曼颜色启发”的新蜡笔替换已经退役的“蒲公英”黄色蜡笔，尽管这支蜡笔并不含有真正的颜料。
Like all great discoveries, this one was an accident. The pigment was a chance-discovery by scientists led by Mas Subramanian at Oregon State University (OSU) while researching materials for electronics applications. Graduate student Andrew Smith was attempting to create a high-efficiency electronic material by heating manganese oxide to approximately 1200 °C (~2100 °F) when he noticed that a shocking blue compound had emerged in the furnace.
就像所有伟大的发现一样，这是一个意外。这种色素是由俄勒冈州立大学(OSU)马斯·萨勃拉曼尼亚领导的科学家在研究电子应用材料时偶然发现的。研究生安德鲁·史密斯试图通过将氧化锰加热到大约1200°C(~2100°F)来创造一种高效电子材料，这时他注意到熔炉中出现了一种令人震惊的蓝色化合物。
"Basically, this was an accidental discovery," Subramanian, a Milton Harris professor of materials science in the OSU Department of Chemistry, in a statement in 2009. "Our work had nothing to do with looking for a pigment."
“基本上，这是一个偶然的发现，”苏州立大学化学系米尔顿·哈里斯材料科学教授萨勃拉曼尼亚在2009年的一份声明中说。“我们的工作与寻找颜料无关。”
The pigment was named YInMn Blue after its main chemical constituents: Yttrium, Indium, and Manganese. You can read a detailed study about the creation of the pigment in the journal Inorganic Chemistry in 2015, but those who don’t have a deep knowledge of chemistry might be wondering what the big deal is.
这种色素因其主要化学成分钇、铟和锰而被命名为阴蓝。你可以在2015年的《无机化学》杂志上读到关于这种色素产生的详细研究，但那些对化学没有深入了解的人可能会想知道这有什么大不了的。
It appears the art world likes the pigment because of the vivid and vibrant color, but YInMn is also a very stable compound that doesn't react when heated, cooled, or mixed with water or acid, making it a desirable choice of material. Many other famous inorganic blue pigments have their fair share of troubles — cobalt blue can be carcinogenic, while Prussian blue can release cyanide — but YInMn appears to be relatively safe and environmentally benign.
似乎艺术界喜欢这种颜料是因为它生动活泼的颜色，但银锰也是一种非常稳定的化合物，在加热、冷却或与水或酸混合时不会发生反应，这使它成为理想的材料选择。许多其他著名的无机蓝色颜料也有它们的麻烦——钴蓝可能致癌，而普鲁士蓝可以释放氰化物——但银蓝似乎相对安全，对环境无害。
"Ever since the early Egyptians developed some of the first blue pigments, the pigment industry has been struggling to address problems with safety, toxicity and durability," added Subramanian.
萨勃拉曼尼亚补充说:“自从早期埃及人开发出一些最早的蓝色颜料以来，颜料工业一直在努力解决安全、毒性和耐久性等问题。”
The story doesn’t end there, however. Subramanian and his team have since designed other durable colors - including yellow, orange, green, and purple - by tweaking the chemistry used to create YInMn. He even managed to secure a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in April 2020 to find inorganic red pigment that's vivid, safe, and durable.
然而，故事并没有就此结束。萨勃拉曼尼亚和他的团队已经设计出了其他耐久的颜色——包括黄色、橙色、绿色和紫色——通过调整用来制造银的化学物质。他甚至在2020年4月设法从国家科学基金会获得了20万美元的拨款，以寻找生动、安全、持久的无机红色颜料。
