Originally published by OSU Advantage

Sometimes, the best inventions happen when you’re looking for something else. This was the case for Oregon State University professor Mas Subramanian and his team, who were researching new materials for electronics applications when they accidentally produced a bright blue pigment.

After mixing manganese oxide (which is black in color) with other chemicals and heating them in a furnace at almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, one of their samples turned out to be a vivid blue. Graduate student Andrew Smith initially made these samples to study their electrical properties.

“It was serendipity, actually; a happy accidental discovery,” Subramanian says.  Read more…