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Bridge at Buchanty. In the article “Prussian Blue: Artists’ Pigment and Chemists’ Sponge”, Mike Ware tells the story of how the accidental discovery over 300 years ago of the artists’ pigment Prussian blue, iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II), opened up a whole new area of chemistry—that of the cyanide ion. Photochemical production of the pigment is the basis for the cyanotype or blueprint reprographic process. Inclusion of redox-active species in the Prussian blue lattice can ‘fine-tune’ its color, by shifting the electronic charge transfer band in the visible absorption spectrum. Thus, photographic artists unknowingly employ coordination chemistry to tone the hues of their cyanotypes. Mike Ware took the cyanotype image on the cover, showing a young sapling mimicking the massive arch of the bridge above it, along the banks of the River Almond, a few miles west of the city of Perth, in Scotland. See the author’s essay “A Bridge for Two Cultures” for additional details.
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