About This Project
I am a chemist and artist who loves to paint. There are virtually untapped areas of painting because of the present limitations of paint dyes. In this project I will create new dyes that can (1) fluoresce brilliantly with visible light, (2) generate their own long-lasting, renewable light in various colors directly on canvas, and (3) reversibly change the colors in the painting based on immersion in different gases.
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
Fluorescent dyes or pigments for paints have been invented, but most only glow in the presence of a black light (UV light) and the color range is limited for those glowing with visible light. We need to know the chemical features essential for designing chemicals that both fluoresce in visible light, fluoresce in paint, and produce different colors without degrading.
Dyes that produce their own long-lasting light from a chemical reaction are known, such as in glow sticks, but none have been incorporated into paints. We need to know how to make dyes that produce light in paint repeatedly on canvas.
Dyes that change color with different liquids or gases are known, but not in paints. We need to know how to make these dyes interact with vapors to change color repeatedly in paint on canvas.
What is the significance of this project?
With visible light-powered fluorescent paints, glowing paintings can be appreciated in a visible light illuminated room, such as a home, gallery, or museum. This project will find out the chemical compositions needed for stable fluorescent dyes in paints with a wide range of glowing colors in visible light.
Light-emitting paints could be used to make beautiful artwork that could be easily viewed at night without consuming electric power. This project will explore the chemical compositions needed for renewable-on-canvas, long-lasting, light-emitting dyes in paints emitting a wide range of colors and easily viewed at night.
Paint dyes that change color when immersed in sealed transparent containers with various gases make one painting amazingly mutable and wild. These dyes will be discovered.
What are the goals of the project?
1) I will prepare fluorescent and color-changing chemical mixtures, photograph them, and record the composition of these dyes using the equipment obtained from the project.
2) With fluorescent dyes I will measure their ability to fluoresce with visible light before and after being mixed with the paint binders. The goal is to find the longest lasting dyes most fluorescent with the binder.
3) With color-changing dyes, I will prepare paints on canvas, expose them to various gases, and photograph them.
4) I will prepare microscopic plastic beads that hold light-emitting dyes, mix these with various paint binders and additives that enhance light production, and put these on canvas with solid activating chemicals. I will take photos of these paintings and survey people for their night visibility.
Budget
The SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometer is an instrument that measures three things: (1) how much visible light of various types (wavelengths) is absorbed by dyes, (2) how much light is emitted (fluoresced) when the dye absorbs the energy of violet or blue-green light, and (3) how much light is produced by dyes that make their own light by a chemical reaction. I need this instrument to know that a new dye-paint combination has the best properties of visible light fluorescence, color-changing characteristics, or light emission.
The Vernier Mini GC Plus Gas Chromatograph will be used to analyze the composition of some of the color-changing dyes' solvents. Since the stability of these solvents is critical to obtaining predictable color changes in my color-changing paints, I will use this instrument every day to measure the composition of previously made solvent mixtures to confirm stability, i. e., whether I need to dispose of the solvent mixture and make a fresh batch.
Meet the Team
Team Bio
At age 4, I learned how to paint from my Dad, who was an artist in Boston. I have exhibited my paintings in Salisbury, MD, where I first showed a series of fluorescent paintings requiring a black light. I also love chemistry and was a chemistry professor for 23 years, where I became fascinated by the potential of fluorescence, light-producing chemical reactions, and color-changing chemicals to detect diseases and toxins and just for their visual beauty. I wondered if it was possible to incorporate these exciting dyes into my other passion, painting, which is how this project started.
I am an independent research scientist and online chemistry textbook editor now, but I am always an artist, chemist, and educator. Doing this project lets me help a high school student discover scientific research and to create beautiful new forms of painting.
My other interests are creating animations, drawing comic books, and writing. I have completed a sci-fi/fantasy novel called Prometheopolis, which I am looking to publish.
Additional Information
A series of fluorescent solutions illuminated by a UV lamp (a black light). Each solution emits (fluoresces) a different color of visible light when excited by the UV light. If you turn off the black light, the chemicals will not fluoresce. I would like to make fluorescent paints that emit different colors when excited by visible light, i.e., the light from light bulbs or sunlight.
These are solutions that produce their own light. Chemical reactions that produce light are called chemiluminescent (pronounced kem-i(like in sit)-loom-i(like it sit)-ness-cent). No source of exciting light is used here. The chemical reaction supplies the energy to make light. Glowsticks work this way. I hope to make long-lasting chemiluminescent paints for dramatic artwork that can be easily viewed at night or in a darkened room. No electric power needed!
This is a fluorescent drawing that I made called "Flying through a Cosmic Storm". Left image: Normal light. Right image: Black light (UV light). Notice the interplay of light and dark areas under black light that make the drawing very different.
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Cover photo credit: Jonathan Stonehouse
Project Backers
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