Color Shifting Paints

DuPont's ChromaLusion^TM paint was used on 'Blacker', the irridescent car driven by Jeff Gordon and discussed in Chapter 3 of my book. ChromaLusion^TM uses a special metal pigment developed by JDSU called ChromaFlair^®, which makes use of thin-film optical interference JDSU has to change the color you see depending on where you're standing when you see it. The JDSU website has a nice brochure about ChromaFlair^® that includes a schematic of how the flakes are constructed and the different color ranges that are possible. They also have a nice image gallery that shows some examples of the pigment on more mundane objects than race cars.

For some of the fundamental physics behind this type of color shifting, look at the article by Carmi Weingrod on danielsmith.com, which is a good introduction to pigments in general. She also covers the historical development of interference pigments, with interesting stops in ancient Egypt and Rome. C&E News has a nice article by Marc S. Reisch on specialty paints including glitter and irridescent pigments.