#masblue

YInMn Blue!

The first new blue pigment to be discovered in the last 114 years!

YInMn Blue (for yttrium, indium, manganese), also known as Oregon Blue, Mas Blue, or Yin Min Blue, is an inorganic blue pigment that was discovered accidentally by Andrew E. Smith under the Ph.D thesis guidance of Professor Mas Subramanian at Oregon State University in 2009.

It is the first inorganic blue pigment discovered in 114 years, since Manganese Blue was invented in 1907 and patented in 1935.

The compound has a unique trigonal bipyramidal structure, and further research has discovered that the compound may be modified to create green, purple, and orange pigments.

Blue pigments, which date back 6,000 years, have been traditionally toxic and prone to fading. That’s no longer the case with YInMn, which reflects heat and absorbs UV radiation, making it cooler and more durable than pigments like cobalt blue.