What is Pigment? The colored substance which is insoluble in water or other solvents is called a pigment. Thus the application of dye and pigment will be different. A dye is applied in the form of a solution, whereas the pigment is applied in the form of a paste in a drying oil, in which it is insoluble. Pigments are insoluble powders of very fine particle size, i.u., as small as 0.01 micron, which are used in paints, plastics, rubber, textiles, inks and other materials to impart color, opaqueness and other desirable properties to the product. There are various types of pigment and widely used in textile dyeing and printing.
Pigment comes from Latin word pigner which means Paint. Colorants can be either dyes or pigments. There are organic or inorganic colorant materials. Pigments are insoluble coloring matter mostly of mineral origin which have no affinity for fiber, are fixed onto the textile substrate with a binding agent in the pattern required. It has only chromophore group but no auxochrome group. So, it has no affinity for the fiber. They are applied by using dispersion in a suitable medium. Generally, pigment retain essentially their particulate or crystalline form during application.
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. The appearance of pigments is intimately connected to the color of the source light. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light. Many materials selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light. Materials that humans have chosen and developed for use as pigments usually have special properties that make them ideal for coloring other materials. A pigment must have a high tinting strength relative to the materials it colors. It must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures. For industrial applications, as well as in the arts, permanence and stability are desirable properties. Pigments that are not permanent are called fugitive. Fugitive pigments fade over time, or with exposure to light, while some eventually blacken. Pigments are used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fabric, cosmetics, food and other materials. Most pigments used in manufacturing and the visual arts are dry colorants, usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a binder (or vehicle), a relatively neutral or colorless material that suspends the pigment and gives the paint its adhesion.
Classification / Types of Pigment:
There are two types of Pigment. They are-
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