Kremer Tages-Leucht-Farben Pigmente

Product information "Kremer Day-Luminous Colors Pigments"

Kremer Day-Luminous Colors Pigments

In the late sixties of this century, a group of extremely bright dyes came onto the market that were previously completely unimaginable. These pigments, or rather the colors made from them, seem to glow from within. At the time, they were popularly called "shock colors," but today the nonsensical term "neon colors" is often used. The term "phosphor colors" is also simply wrong because they do not contain any phosphor at all! The correct term, however, is "fluorescent colors." 

Available variants: 

Daylight fluorescent color white (56000) 

Daylight fluorescent color blue (56050) 

Daylight fluorescent color green (56100) 

Daylight fluorescent color lemon yellow (56150) 

Daylight fluorescent color golden orange (56200) 

Daylight fluorescent color orange (56250) 

Daylight fluorescent color brick red (56300) 

Daylight fluorescent color flame red (56350) 

Daylight fluorescent color cyclam red (56400) 

Daylight fluorescent color violet (56450) 

As already mentioned above, these dyes can be stimulated by visible light and invisible UV. This means that short-wave radiation (UV and blue light components) is converted into longer-wave, visible, or more conspicuous light by a group of atoms responsible for the fluorescence within the complex organic dye molecule. This is why these pigments appear to glow particularly intensely at dusk, when the light component is strongly shifted towards blue. An even stronger effect is achieved when exposed to blue light or very short-wave blue light with soft UV, as is found in so-called "black light lamps". This property is often used in discos and party rooms. The short-wave, just barely perceptible light makes all fluorescent materials glow in their own color, while other colors that are brilliant in normal light are only reproduced in corresponding gray tones.

The organic dyes are relatively inexpensive and fairly economical, and completely non-toxic. However, they have one serious drawback: they are not very lightfast! However, if these pigments are exposed to less daylight, their durability is certainly acceptable. 

These luminous paints are not included in ranges of artist paints, but are often found with the additional designation "fluorescent" or "fluorescent" in paint ranges for children, for graphic purposes, in colored pencils and felt-tip pens, especially as so-called highlighters, but also as spray paints for decorating vehicles or for model making. 

The pigments can be processed into artist paints of the desired quality without any major problems. As with other organic pigments, wetting with alcohol beforehand is recommended for water-based techniques, but this is not necessary when using dispersions. When making oil paint, it is also sufficient to use a spatula, but for reasons of homogeneity and the lowest possible binding agent content, you should rub the paint with a glass runner when making tube paints. The production of varnishes or synthetic resin varnishes is also unproblematic. What is interesting, however, is the fact that daylight fluorescent paints in oil or varnish shift their color tone towards the warmer side, which means that, for example, the cold, bluish cyclamen red shifts a little towards orange, etc. This is because the oil or synthetic resin filters out a large part of the short-wave light components, which also has the advantage that the light resistance can be improved a little. 

Safety data sheets and further information can be found on the Kremer website.