Colour Chemistry

Have you ever wondered why grass is green, the sky is blue or how your favourite sweater acquired its specific colour? Colour pervades all aspects of our lives, influencing our moods and emotions and generally enhancing the way in which we enjoy our environment. This revised and updated third edition provides a current insight into how the fundamental principles of the chemistry of colour are applied in dyes and pigments. It takes a broadly similar approach to the previous editions with some important changes.

The text has been expanded and re-written throughout, reflecting recent and current trends. The structure of the previous editions is largely maintained although there is some redistribution of content to improve the logic of presentation and clarity. The historical features incorporate recent developments relating to the geographical shift of colour manufacture and application industries including informed speculation on potential future directions. The content on molecular modelling techniques applied to calculation of the properties of dyes and pigments has been revised significantly as some earlier techniques have become largely obsolete. Where the chemistry of industrial dyes and pigments is mature, the author has rewritten chapters to focus on current features of importance while retaining relevant fundamentals. Other key changes include:

• the chapter on textile dyes embraces reactive dyes, previously in a separate chapter, to allow a more coherent treatment of the topic;
• information on pigments has been broadened;
• in the applications chapters, a new section on food dyes is now incorporated;
• there is an expanded and updated treatment of π-functional colorants encompassing chromic materials and colorants for electronics, solar energy generation, biomedical and analytical applications;
• and finally, a chapter on colour in the environment discusses the environmental issues for which there is continuing sensitivity and how colour manufacturing and application industries address these issues.

Colour Chemistry is of interest to academics and industrialists who are specialists in colour science or involved with the diverse range of coloured materials and provides a discussion of the chemistry of colour that is ideal for students, graduates and those in industry and academia seeking an introduction to the topic.

Professor Robert Christie has now retired from his position as Professor of Colour Chemistry and Technology at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University. He continues to act as a consultant to the colour manufacture and application industries worldwide.