Cadmium sulfide
A bright yellow pigment and semiconductor compound made from cadmium and sulfur
No single value: Cadmium sulfide is a material, and its colour varies. The background shows its family, yellow.
Cadmium sulfide is a yellow chemical compound used mainly as a pigment called cadmium yellow and as a semiconductor material. First widely available in the 1800s, it is valued for its strong colour, stability, and use in paints, plastics, and electronic devices.
- Cadmium sulfide is the main source of cadmium for industry.
- It is used as the pigment cadmium yellow in art and plastics.
- Artists like Van Gogh and Monet used cadmium yellow after the 1840s.
- Cadmium sulfide is toxic and classified as carcinogenic.
- It is also a semiconductor used in solar cells and photoresistors.
What colour is Cadmium sulfide?
Cadmium sulfide is a yellow compound, appearing as a bright, vivid yellow powder. It stands out for its strong opacity and lasting colour, making it a popular choice for artists and manufacturers. Unlike some other yellow pigments, cadmium sulfide is stable in light and heat, and resists most chemicals. It is also a semiconductor, meaning it can conduct electricity under certain conditions, which adds to its uses beyond colour.
Where does Cadmium sulfide come from?
The name cadmium sulfide comes from its chemical makeup: cadmium and sulfur. It occurs naturally in rare minerals like greenockite and hawleyite, but most commercial cadmium sulfide is made in factories. Its striking yellow colour led to its use as a pigment in the 19th century, quickly becoming popular with artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, and Matisse. The pigment's presence in a painting can help date the artwork, as it was not available before the 1800s.
How is Cadmium sulfide made?
Cadmium sulfide is produced by reacting soluble cadmium salts with sulfide ions, causing the yellow compound to form and settle out. The resulting solid is washed to remove impurities, then heated to create the stable hexagonal form and ground into a fine powder. For use in electronics, thin films are made using special chemical or physical methods, such as chemical bath deposition or vapour phase epitaxy.
Where Cadmium sulfide is used
Cadmium sulfide is best known as the pigment cadmium yellow, used in paints, plastics, and printing inks for its brightness and durability. Artists have used it since the 1840s, and it is also found in photoresistors, solar cells, and some types of lasers and transistors. In plastics, it provides strong colour that holds up under heat and sunlight.
Yellow around the world
What the yellow family means from country to country.
The yellow disc of the Aboriginal flag is the sun, giver of life. The flag was designed by the Luritja artist Harold Thomas and first flown in Adelaide in 1971.
Sacred and holySource: Australian Aboriginal flagAt the gaye holud, held a day or two before a wedding, relatives rub turmeric paste on the bride and groom. Guests dress in yellow and orange.
Weddings and marriageFestival and celebrationJoySource: Gaye holudOn Pohela Falgun, the first day of spring, young women wear yellow and orange saris, a shade called basanti, with flowers in their hair.
Festival and celebrationNature and renewalJoySource: Pohela FalgunThe Flemish flag is a black lion on yellow, and the Walloon flag a red cockerel on yellow. The language communities are often shown by these colours.
Politics and protestPrideSource: Flag of FlandersThe flag is yellow, the colour of the Sultan. By custom, ordinary people did not wear yellow in the ruler's presence.
Royalty and powerPrideSource: Flag of BruneiThe national football team plays in a yellow shirt with green trim, the canarinho. It was chosen in a newspaper contest after the 1950 World Cup final was lost in white.
Festival and celebrationPrideJoySource: Brazil national football teamShades and relatives of Cadmium sulfide
When mixed with cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide forms pigments that shift from yellow toward orange and red. These solid solutions are used both in pigments and in electronic components. The pigment is sometimes confused with other yellow pigments but is recognised for its particular brightness and stability.
Questions people ask about Cadmium sulfide
What colour is cadmium sulfide?
Cadmium sulfide is a bright, vivid yellow. Its strong colour and opacity make it a popular pigment in paints and plastics.
Where does the name cadmium sulfide come from?
The name comes from its chemical composition: it is made from the elements cadmium and sulfur.
How is cadmium sulfide made?
It is made by reacting cadmium salts with sulfide ions, then washing and heating the solid to get a stable yellow powder.
What is cadmium sulfide used for?
It is mainly used as a yellow pigment in paints, plastics, and inks, and as a semiconductor in electronics such as solar cells.
Is cadmium sulfide safe?
Cadmium sulfide is toxic, especially if inhaled as dust, and is classified as carcinogenic. Care is needed when handling it.
Good reading and sources
- Cadmium sulfide on WikipediaEncyclopedia
- More pictures on Wikimedia CommonsPictures
- Wikidata recordOpen data
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Cadmium sulfide", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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