13 - Maya Blue Pigments Derived From Clay Minerals

Abstract

Maya Blue is an ancient hybrid pigment, widely used in Mayan murals, pottery and statues. Maya Blue has attracted extensive attention due to its remarkable stability. The unique channel and groove structures of palygorskite endow Maya Blue with excellent stability. Inspired by Maya Blue, a variety of clay minerals and organic dyes have been used to prepare Maya Blue-like pigments. Nevertheless, the color of these hybrid pigments lacks diversity, and their stability is not as high as that of the ancient Maya Blue. On the other hand, Maya Blue is a representative organic-inorganic hybrid material. The research of Maya Blue provides new ideas for the design of new functional materials. Many novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials have been developed on the basis of Maya Blue. By reviewing the comprehensive literature, this chapter summarizes the research progress of Maya Blue and Maya Blue-like pigments in recent years. We first introduced the origin, structure, physicochemical properties, and preparation methods of Maya blue and then described in detail the stability of Maya blue derived from different clay minerals, the host-guest interaction between clay minerals and dyes, and the design of Maya blue-like pigments, and their applications. We greatly hope that this chapter can help people have a clearer understanding of the development of Maya blue and Maya blue-like pigments.