Lead Colors

name         Amanda
status       student
grade        6-8
location     IL

Question -   Can lead be different colors besides bluish-gray?
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Pure lead, with no other elements, is not very bluish.
Being a metal, it must be a darkened silver if smooth,
or dull gray if rough, or black if finely powdered.
Pretty much no "color" at all.

But when it combines with other elements to make a compound,
it has some good colors, some often used in classic artist's oil-paints.
You might be able to buy "Lead Yellow" in an art store.
Lead Oxides can be yellow, orange, or even red.
Sulfides, phosphides, and others can be black.
Sulfates can be  clear or white.

The bluishness of typical lead metal can be thought of as
medium-dark colorless metal covered with a thin transparent layer of oxides
and/or sulfides.
Even a perfectly clear layer can make the metal look bluish
if it has the right thickness to help red light absorb
into the imperfect silveriness of the metal, and to help blue light bounce
off.
A layer twice as thick might do the opposite.
It's a resonant thing, much like needing the length of a diving board
to match your stride, to get a good dive.

Many metals have a favorite thickness of surface-oxide.
Sitting around in air, the oxide grows to a certain thickness
and then usually slows down greatly, almost stops.
Lead might have a "favorite thickness" that results in bluishness.

There might also be some native bluish tint to the thin oxide layer.
I do not have a reference that tells me what color it really has.
In particular I am not sure whether Lead Sulfide can be bluish-clear when
it's really thin.

Jim Swenson
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