Notes

World of Colour Menu

Frontpage
Origin of Colour
Colour within the Chemistry lab
The physical measurement of colour
Measuring Concentrations using absorbance,
Transition Metal Solutions,
Rhodopsin and the eye
Basics behind Dyes and Pigments
Phosphorescence and Fluorescence
A Thermochromic example
Colour Therapy
Detection using Optical Sensors
Symbols, Glossary, Disclaimer, Credits, References, feedback..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Action 3: Book turning. This image is taken from gifs (ref. 14) and is copyright restricted according to the source given (i.e. it is not the authors' own work).
Symbols:

h = Planck's constant, ν = frequency, λ = wavelength and c = speed of light

Glossary:

 Amphiphilic – ability to be lipophilic (i.e. fat soluble) as well as hydrophilic (i.e. aqueous media), depending on the surrounding environment.

 Chromogenic – colour change upon complexation

Conjugated – molecules with orbitals which are delocalised and therefore form a π-electron cloud across more than one atom.

 Degeneracy – Degenerate orbitals are ones which possess the same energy as each other (e.g. the three 2p orbitals).

 Doct – the energy splitting between the two d-orbital sets.

Electromagnetic wave - An electric wave oscillating in phase and at right angles to a magnetic wave.

HOMO – Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital

 LUMO – Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital

Why are carrots coloured? They contain a long chain unsaturated hydrocarbon known as β-carotene. This cartenoid absorbs in the greenish-blue region of the spectrum and therefore transmits orange light to the eye.

Action 10: The structure of β-carotene

Disclaimer:

This website was designed as a starting point to further information and is in no way a complete, or comprehensive source of information for the topics discussed herein.  All the information in this website is taken from published sources and is therefore correct according to the various authors given in the reference section. This website is not copyright restricted but the sources from which the images are taken are.  Therefore, any reproduction of images found on this website is subject to copyright laws and the author of this website cannot take responsibility for any possible resulting legal action.

Credits:

My thanks to my A-level teachers at Headington School, Oxford but particularly Mrs Boorman and Mrs Al-Sabouni for giving me such a good grounding in Chemistry. Thanks to Mum and Dad for all their help, support and encouragement especially in terms of computational ability in this particular case. My thanks also to James Hooper and Daniel Brown for their continual support throughout the writing and designing of this site. I would also like to thank Mike for replying to my BBCi message and confirming my memory of the TV programme described in the colour therapy section. Finally, this site would amount to a lot less without the in-numerable abilities of google search engine.

References:

  1. The original idea for this page came from some of my 2nd Year lecture courses and practicals which I have consequently lifted information from. The lecturers’ notes include those of Prof. M.D. Ward, Dr. N.L. Allan, Prof. P.G. Pringle and Dr. J.C. Jeffery. 

  2. Part of the 1st year Biochemistry Course at Bristol University - Membranes and Membrane transport, M.J.A. Tanner. This information itself was taken from Stryer (ref. 6) originally.

  3. Atkins, P.W., Physical Chemistry, 6th edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998, pg. 6 and 455.

  4. Christie, R.M. Colour Chemistry, Cambridge, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2001, pg. 12-23 in particular.

  5. McLaren, K. The Colour Science of Dyes and Pigments, 2nd edition, Bristol, Adam Hilger, 1986. Parts of Chapters 1, 4 and 5.

  6. Stryer, L. Biochemistry, 4th edition, U.S.A., Freeman and Company, 1999, pg. 319, 332-339, 709.

  7. Miyaji H., Collinson S.R., Proke I., Tucker J.H.R., A ditopic ferrocene receptor for anions and cations that functions as a chromogenic molecular switch. Chemical Communications, 2003, 64-65.

  8. Kojima S., Hasegawa T., Yonemura T., Sasaki K., Yamamoto K., Makimura Y., Takahashi T., Suzuki T., Suzuki Y., Kobayashi K., Ruthenium complexes carrying a disialo complex-type oligosaccharide: enzymatic synthesis and its application to a luminescent probe to detect influenza viruses. Chemical Communications, 2003, 1250-1251.

  9.  Zhao Y., Xie J., Zhao J., Photodynamic activity and potential usability of 14-carboxyl hypocrellin B. New. J. Chem., 2003, 27, 880-885.

  10.  www.beyondreason.niagara.com/holistic.htm

  11. www.colourtherapyhealing.com

  12. Cepko C., Ryder E., Fekete D.M., and Bruhn S., Detection of b-galactosidase and alkaline phosphatase activities in tissue - found at axon.med.harvard.edu/~cepko/protocol/xgalplap-stain.htm

  13. www.bbc.com.uk

  14. www.chm.bris.ac.uk/pt/shared/gifs/gifs5.htm

Feedback:

  Please send any comments about this website to tr0201@bris.ac.uk   

Thank you for visiting this site. Goodbye....

Action 10: Letter. Action 11: Handwave. Both images were taken from gifs (ref. 14) and are copyright restricted according to the source given (i.e. they are not the authors' own work).

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