Study of color changing in composite materials promoted by chomotropic pigments

Abstract

[Excerpt] Nowadaysthe combination of the design with the evolution of materials and technologies has been assumed as a important driver in the development of the new multifunctional components,instead of monofunctional ones,to urban furniture, among other areas.In this sense, the chromatic mutability of the materials, making them into active materials,is one of the most important trends actually verified in the designers communityaround the world.This property, promoted by the use of chromotropicpigments dispersed in the materials,consists in itsabilityto change its colour as a result of an external stimulus, such as temperature or light incidence. For example, a thermochromatic material has the ability tochange its colour by the variation of the temperature, and aphotochromatic one by the UV lightexposition. These materials are characterizedby a valence gap, that when it were excited by a stimuluspromotesthe transition of an electron to that gap, causingthe colour change in the material.In this context, in this paper it was studiedthe compatibility of chromotropic pigments with compositematerialsreinforced by synthetic fibres, and their real capacity tochange its colour when submitted to a determined stimulus. [...]