Microalgal pigments as natural hues in environmentally-sustainable and commercially-prospective biopaints
Commercially available paints have synthetic colours as their primary ingredients which highly affect the environment and therefore, the search for natural resources is inevitable. Microalgal pigments are widely used as natural colourants in food and cosmetic industries; however, reports on the use...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Journal of applied phycology Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 191 - 204 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Dordrecht
Springer Netherlands
01-02-2024
Springer Nature B.V |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Commercially available paints have synthetic colours as their primary ingredients which highly affect the environment and therefore, the search for natural resources is inevitable. Microalgal pigments are widely used as natural colourants in food and cosmetic industries; however, reports on the use of above pigments in paints are scarce and until now, only one pigment has been used in commercial/pilot formulations. In this study, environment-friendly water- and oil-based semi-synthetic, as well as natural algae paints were formulated for the first time using microalgal pigments, phycocyanin, astaxanthin and chlorophyll and their combinations. Twenty-four different colour shades of water-based algal paints were achieved. The paint characteristics including durability, adhesion, corrosion resistance and stability were tested and compared with those of commercial paints. The results show that the algae paints have good commercial prospects and the durability testing of the natural algae paint yielded unfaded and unpeeled surfaces for up to 8 months. The pH of semi-synthetic algae paint ranged between 8 and 9 and those of natural algae paint were between 10.1 and 10.2. The specific gravity of the paints of all 24 shades was between 1.3 and 1.4 g mL
−1
. Formulated oil-based microalgae paints of RGB shades and equiproportional mix shades showed an anticorrosive effect comparable to that of commercial oil-based paint during accelerated corrosion testing on galvanised iron, mild steel, aluminium, and carbon steel immersed in freshwater and marine water. The results of this study warrant future research and commercial validation of microalgae pigments in eco-friendly paints.
Graphical abstract |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0921-8971 1573-5176 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10811-023-03124-7 |