Lemon Yellow

Artificial inorganic pigment

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Composition and Properties of Lemon Yellow

Lemon yellow is a barium chromate with a formula of BaCrO₄.

It decomposes in acids and also in alkalis. The pigment is rather lightfast but can change its colour to gray-green with time due to the reduction of the chromate ion to chromium 3⁺ ion.

Pigment

Painted swatch

Names

Alternative names

Barium chromate

Color Index

PY 31, CI 77103

Zitronengelb

German

Jaune citron

French

Limone giallo

Italian

Amarillo limón

Spanish

Preparation

Attention: All chromates and dichromates are highly toxic chemicals and should not be used by people not trained to handle them.

Barium chromate can be precipitated from the aqueous solutions of potassium chromate and barium nitrate.

Video: 'Barium chromate precipitate' by ChemToddler

History of Use

The French chemist Louis Vauquelin discovered the element chrome in 1797. Shortly after the possibility of using chromates as pigments was recognized and the first methods of preparation were invented.

Examples of use

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Boating on the Seine (La Yole), ca 1879

The boat is painted in a mixture of chrome yellow (lead chromate) and lemon yellow (barium chromate). The darker orange outline contains chrome orange (basic lead chromate).

Claude Monet, Water-Lilies, after 1916

References

(1) Marta Felix, Vanessa Otero, Joana Pinto, Marcia Vilarigues, Leslie Carlyle, Maria João Melo, Vanessa Matias, Barium, zinc and strontium yellows in late 19th–early 20th-century oil paintings, Heritage Science, 5:46, 2017. DOI 10.1186/s40494-017-0160-3

Timeline for Yellow Pigments

Identification

Infrared Spectrum

IR Spectrum of lemon yellow at National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
IR Spectrum of lemon yellow in the ATR-FT-IR spectra of different pure inorganic pigments, University of Tartu, Estonia.