Paint is used for decoration, sanitation, identification and protection.
There are 3 main parts of paint – pigment, vehicle, and the solvent.
Pigment is the color. This is an important paint ingredient. It is actually a solid, even in the wet paint, but the pieces are too small that they seem to be part of the liquid. Usually these pigments are different minerals or other chemicals that are very colorful. They can be found throughout nature in clays, nuts, barks, berries, herbs, carbon, soot and charcoal. Before being ground down into powder, they are usually boiled several times in water so that impurities can be removed.
The next part of paint is a liquid known as the ‘vehicle’ because it actually transports the pigment. From the paint can, the pigment goes to the object we are painting with the help of the vehicle. Some common vehicles are acrylics and oils. Vehicles are made of resins (sticky substances that form a film with the colorful pigment). Resin also acts as binder to hold the pigment particles together as well as to provide adhesion to the surface painted. Natural binders that can be used are lime, chalk, animal or vegetable glues, casein (non-fat milk curds), and oil.
There are 3 main parts of paint – pigment, vehicle, and the solvent.
Pigment is the color. This is an important paint ingredient. It is actually a solid, even in the wet paint, but the pieces are too small that they seem to be part of the liquid. Usually these pigments are different minerals or other chemicals that are very colorful. They can be found throughout nature in clays, nuts, barks, berries, herbs, carbon, soot and charcoal. Before being ground down into powder, they are usually boiled several times in water so that impurities can be removed.
The next part of paint is a liquid known as the ‘vehicle’ because it actually transports the pigment. From the paint can, the pigment goes to the object we are painting with the help of the vehicle. Some common vehicles are acrylics and oils. Vehicles are made of resins (sticky substances that form a film with the colorful pigment). Resin also acts as binder to hold the pigment particles together as well as to provide adhesion to the surface painted. Natural binders that can be used are lime, chalk, animal or vegetable glues, casein (non-fat milk curds), and oil.
You will get a thick gloopy substance if you only mix a pigment with a binder and that will make them difficult to spread. That is why paints have a third major chemical component – the solvent (something that dissolves something else). This solvent is used so that the paint is so easy to work with because it thins it (make the liquid less viscous and more easily flowing) therefore makes it easier to apply. This is why paint solvents are often called thinners. In water-based paints, water is the solvent.
Apart from the solvent, binder and pigment, many paints also have chemical additives of various kinds. For example, to improve durability and strength you can add ceramic substances to paints while to make them glow in the dark, fluorescent pigments can be added. Certain additives in paint can also help things rustproof and waterproof therefore protecting it against sunlight and frost, and keep it free of mold and mildew.
Expensive paints have a lower percentage of solvents per volume. There is more pigment and resins in the gallon of expensive paint than low quality paint. With cheap paint, what you are applying is actually water or mineral spirits (solvents up to about 70%) that will evaporate and leave little pigment behind so that you need to re-coat and re-coat up to several times with another low quality paint.
Apart from the solvent, binder and pigment, many paints also have chemical additives of various kinds. For example, to improve durability and strength you can add ceramic substances to paints while to make them glow in the dark, fluorescent pigments can be added. Certain additives in paint can also help things rustproof and waterproof therefore protecting it against sunlight and frost, and keep it free of mold and mildew.
Expensive paints have a lower percentage of solvents per volume. There is more pigment and resins in the gallon of expensive paint than low quality paint. With cheap paint, what you are applying is actually water or mineral spirits (solvents up to about 70%) that will evaporate and leave little pigment behind so that you need to re-coat and re-coat up to several times with another low quality paint.
Other Interesting Paint Facts
- Paint is the most prevalent household hazardous waste (HHW) – it makes up the most quantity, by volume, of maeterials received at HHW collection programs across the country.
- Various colors of paint can help your body heal itself. For example, green can help people relieve stress while red often used to regain vigor.
- In ancient times, the color purple became associated with royalty. This is because only the aristocrats who could afford the expensive pigment. In order to have one pound of purple pigment, they took about 4 million crushed mollusk shells to create it (during Roman times).
- In the Middle Ages, people used paint made from egg yolks and ground semi-precious stones to make manuscripts ‘illuminated’.
- The Golden Gate Bridge built in 1937 has always been painted with the same color since it was completed.
- In most places, it is against the law to put free flowing liquids in the trash (such as paint).