Transition metal impurities

Most chemical compounds are colourless when pure; examples include sodium chloride (ordinary table salt), aluminum oxide, naphthalene (moth flakes), and diamond. In these compounds all electrons are present in pairs. Such paired electrons are particularly stable and require very high energies to become unpaired and form excited energy levels. Only ultraviolet light is energetic enough to be absorbed, which explains the absence of visible light absorptions and the absence of colour. The compounds of a number of metals—most commonly iron, chromium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese—do, however, produce coloured salts. These metals are the transition elements, which contain unpaired electrons in their compounds. Excited energy levels are readily formed by these unpaired electrons, resulting in the absorption of photons and the production of colour.

Aluminum oxide, also known as corundum or colourless sapphire when pure, can serve as an example. In this compound each trivalent aluminum ion is surrounded by six oxygens in the configuration of a slightly irregular octahedron. The electric field at the aluminum site of this octahedral arrangement of oxygens is known as the ligand field. (An older term, implying a simpler approach, was crystal field.) If aluminum oxide contains chromium as an impurity, so that one out of every 100 aluminums is replaced by a chromium, which has unpaired electrons, then the ligand field produces a change in the energy levels that an isolated chromium ion would have. This gives the specific energy level scheme, shown at the left in the figure, which leads to the light absorption curve at the centre of the figure and produces the red colour (as well as the red fluorescence) of the chromium-containing aluminum oxide, also known as the gemstone ruby, as described above.

Similarly, if chromium replaces 1 or 2 percent of the aluminum in the compound beryllium aluminum silicate, a combination also known as the gemstone emerald, then the ligand field has the same geometry but is somewhat weaker, a result of the effect of the berylliums and silicons on the strength of aluminum-oxygen bonding. This produces small shifts in some of the absorption energy levels compared with ruby and results in the absorption spectrum shown at the right in the figure. These shifts have resulted in the almost total elimination of the red transmission and an intensification of the blue-green transmission, leading to an emerald-green colour. The ²E energy level of the figure has not shifted; accordingly, red ruby and green emerald show the same red fluorescence.

Other such transition metal impurities cause the colours of red iron ore and the gemstones yellow citrine and blue-to-green aquamarine (all coloured by a small percentage of iron impurity).

Transition metal compounds

The transition metal may be present not as an impurity but as an essential part of the substance. An example is chromium oxide, also known as the pigment chrome green, in which the relatively weak ligand field of the chromium-oxygen bonding at the chromiums produces colour in a similar manner to that in the emerald discussed above. Additional examples are the copper-containing blue-to-green gem materials malachite, azurite, and turquoise, as well as the patina on copper statues, the red iron ore hematite, and the cobalt-glass pigment smalt.

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Are Black and White Colors?

Organic compounds

All dyes and most pigments, whether natural or synthetic, are complex organic compounds whose molecular structures include a “colour-bearing” group known as a chromophore, usually a short conjugated system (a chain of atoms connected by alternating single and double bonds). The bonding electrons holding the molecule together can be viewed as belonging to the whole molecule. Simple conjugated chains have electronic transitions that absorb radiation only in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. If, however, the chain is long, the resulting transitions between molecular orbital energy levels require less energy, and absorption shifts to longer wavelengths. The carotenes are naturally occurring examples of extended conjugated systems; they absorb some light in the violet or blue range of the spectrum and therefore appear yellow or orange in colour. The same effect occurs if the number of electrons present on a conjugated chain is modified by the addition of groups of atoms known as auxochromes. Auxochromes can be either electron acceptors or electron donors. Nitrophenylenediamine compounds contain both types of auxochromes. They absorb in the blue part of the spectrum and are often used in hair dyes because the small size of the molecules allows them to penetrate into hair easily.

Organic dyes occur widely in the plant and animal kingdoms as well as in the modern synthetic dye and pigment industry. Just as with ligand-field energy levels, some of the absorbed energy may be reemitted in the form of fluorescence.

Charge transfer

Aluminum oxide containing a few hundredths of 1 percent of titanium is colourless. If it contains a similar amount of iron, a very pale yellow colour may be seen. If both impurities are present together, the aluminum oxide has a magnificent deep blue colour and is known as the gemstone sapphire. The colour is the result of charge transfer, in which the absorption of light energy allows an electron to move from one ion to another, resulting in a temporary change in the valence state of both ions: Fe²⁺ + Ti⁴⁺ → Fe³⁺ + Ti³⁺. This process requires energy; since the energy corresponds to an absorption in the yellow region of the spectrum, the complementary colour blue results.

Other forms of charge transfer lead to the black of the iron oxide magnetite; the brilliant blue colour of potassium ferric ferrocyanide, the pigment Prussian blue; the yellow-to-orange chromates and dichromates; and the deep blue gemstone lapis lazuli, which has the same composition as the pigment ultramarine.