Egyptian blue is one of the oldest manmade colour
pigments. It adorns, for instance, the crown of the world famous
bust of Nefertiti. But the pigment can do even more. An
international research team led by Dr. Sebastian Kruss from the
Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Göttingen has
produced a new nanomaterial based on the Egyptian blue pigment,
which is ideally suited for applications in imaging using near
infrared spectroscopy and microscopy. The results have been
published in the journal Nature Communications.