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Inorganic Chemistry

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Colorful chromium

by Manny Morone
May 3, 2018
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A pile of shimmering purple chromium(III) chloride crystals.
Credit: Ben Mills/Wikimedia Commons
A GIF animation showing a flask full of a bright purple solution with shiny little crystals stirring around inside.
Credit: David Zigler

This reaction shimmers with a purple hue thanks to chromium(III) chloride (in a suspension, top; in its solid form, bottom). David Zigler’s lab at California Polytechnic State University set up the reaction as part of their work on inorganic photochemistry. The chemists placed CrCl3 in a flask with ethanol and 1,10-phenanthroline, a ligand that binds to chromium to make a green metal complex. The researchers later added other ligands to the green complex to make photosensitizers, molecules that trigger chemical reactions when they absorb light.

Credit: David Zigler (top), Ben Mills/Wikimedia Commons (bottom)

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Related C&EN Content:

Why Van Gogh’s yellows lose their luster

Chromium cleanup.

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society

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