What Color Are Carbon Atoms

We've all seen models of molecules. Chemistry departments often have kits of plastic balls to stick together to represent atoms and their arrangement in molecules. These kits come with several unlike colors to easily distinguish one chemical element from another. The choice of colour for each atom is not arbitrary. There is a convention matching the colour to the elements known every bit CPK colors.

The CPK part comes from the initials of the scientists who first used the colors to lucifer the elements. Corey, Pauling, and Koltun. In 1952, Robert Corey and Linus Pauling used a basic colour code with their models.

Carbon – black
Hydrogen – white
Nitrogen – light blue
Oxygen – red

This color scheme covers the atoms in a great majority of basic organic chemistry molecules, but patently not all of them. Walter Koltun practical for a patent for a molecule set in 1962 to extend the color list to more elements.

Koltun'due south listing included

Carbon – black
Hydrogen – white
Nitrogen – blue
Oxygen – red
Sulfur – yellow
Phosphorus – royal
Halogens – green – starting light light-green for fluorine and getting darker as y'all move down the group
Metals – silver or grayness

There is no set in stone standard for CPK color schemes, but nearly all molecule kits use the same common CPK colors. These colors are typically colors associated with some property of the elements. Sulfur is yellow, carbon is black, chlorine gas is green, iodine gas is purple. Others are less obvious. Nitrogen is constitute in the heaven, and the sky is blue, therefore nitrogen atoms are blueish. Oxygen is plant in blood, blood is red and so oxygen atoms are colored ruddy.

Common CPK Coloring Chart

Element	Color
hydrogen	white
carbon	black
nitrogen	night blueish
oxygen	red
fluorine and chlorine	green
bromine	dark red
iodine	dark majestic
noble gases	calorie-free bluish
phosphorus	orangish
sulfur	yellow
boron	calorie-free orange
brine metals	purple
alkali metal earths	dark greenish
titanium	gray
iron	nighttime orange
whatever's left	pink

Today, computers tin generate visualizations of molecules with ease. Computers are non limited by the available colors. They tin assign singled-out colors to every element if they choose. One of the most common software molecule visualization software packages in use today is called Jmol.

Jmol has assigned colors to nearly every element you're likely to notice in a molecule and even a couple of common isotopes. These isotopes include hydrogen's deuterium and tritium, carbon-13 and carbon-xiv and nitrogen-15.

Download the PDF of the JMOL CPK Color Periodic Table showing these colors and their RGB and Hexadecimal values or simply read the table below.

Number	Element	RGB Color	Hexadecimal Web Color
ane	H	[255,255,255]	FFFFFF
i	D, H-2	[255,255,192]	FFFFC0
ane	T, H-3	[255,255,160]	FFFFA0
2	He	[217,255,255]	D9FFFF
three	Li	[204,128,255]	CC80FF
four	Exist	[194,255,0]	C2FF00
5	B	[255,181,181]	FFB5B5
6	C	[144,144,144]	909090
6	C-13	[80,80,80]	505050
6	C-14	[64,64,64]	404040
vii	Due north	[48,80,248]	3050F8
7	N-fifteen	[xvi,80,fourscore]	105050
8	O	[255,13,thirteen]	FF0D0D
9	F	[144,224,eighty]	90E050
10	Ne	[179,227,245]	B3E3F5
11	Na	[171,92,242]	AB5CF2
12	Mg	[138,255,0]	8AFF00
thirteen	Al	[191,166,166]	BFA6A6
14	Si	[240,200,160]	F0C8A0
15	P	[255,128,0]	FF8000
16	S	[255,255,48]	FFFF30
17	Cl	[31,240,31]	1FF01F
18	Ar	[128,209,227]	80D1E3
19	Yard	[143,64,212]	8F40D4
20	Ca	[61,255,0]	3DFF00
21	Sc	[230,230,230]	E6E6E6
22	Ti	[191,194,199]	BFC2C7
23	V	[166,166,171]	A6A6AB
24	Cr	[138,153,199]	8A99C7
25	Mn	[156,122,199]	9C7AC7
26	Iron	[224,102,51]	E06633
27	Co	[240,144,160]	F090A0
28	Ni	[80,208,fourscore]	50D050
29	Cu	[200,128,51]	C88033
30	Zn	[125,128,176]	7D80B0
31	Ga	[194,143,143]	C28F8F
32	Ge	[102,143,143]	668F8F
33	As	[189,128,227]	BD80E3
34	Se	[255,161,0]	FFA100
35	Br	[166,41,41]	A62929
36	Kr	[92,184,209]	5CB8D1
37	Rb	[112,46,176]	702EB0
38	Sr	[0,255,0]	00FF00
39	Y	[148,255,255]	94FFFF
40	Zr	[148,224,224]	94E0E0
41	Nb	[115,194,201]	73C2C9
42	Mo	[84,181,181]	54B5B5
43	Tc	[59,158,158]	3B9E9E
44	Ru	[36,143,143]	248F8F
45	Rh	[10,125,140]	0A7D8C
46	Pd	[0,105,133]	006985
47	Ag	[192,192,192]	C0C0C0
48	Cd	[255,217,143]	FFD98F
49	In	[166,117,115]	A67573
l	Sn	[102,128,128]	668080
51	Sb	[158,99,181]	9E63B5
52	Te	[212,122,0]	D47A00
53	I	[148,0,148]	940094
54	Xe	[66,158,176]	429EB0
55	Cs	[87,23,143]	57178F
56	Ba	[0,201,0]	00C900
57	La	[112,212,255]	70D4FF
58	Ce	[255,255,199]	FFFFC7
59	Pr	[217,255,199]	D9FFC7
threescore	Nd	[199,255,199]	C7FFC7
61	Pm	[163,255,199]	A3FFC7
62	Sm	[143,255,199]	8FFFC7
63	Eu	[97,255,199]	61FFC7
64	Gd	[69,255,199]	45FFC7
65	Tb	[48,255,199]	30FFC7
66	Dy	[31,255,199]	1FFFC7
67	Ho	[0,255,156]	00FF9C
68	Er	[0,230,117]	00E675
69	Tm	[0,212,82]	00D452
70	Yb	[0,191,56]	00BF38
71	Lu	[0,171,36]	00AB24
72	Hf	[77,194,255]	4DC2FF
73	Ta	[77,166,255]	4DA6FF
74	Westward	[33,148,214]	2194D6
75	Re	[38,125,171]	267DAB
76	Os	[38,102,150]	266696
77	Ir	[23,84,135]	175487
78	Pt	[208,208,224]	D0D0E0
79	Au	[255,209,35]	FFD123
80	Hg	[184,184,208]	B8B8D0
81	Tl	[166,84,77]	A6544D
82	Pb	[87,89,97]	575961
83	Bi	[158,79,181]	9E4FB5
84	Po	[171,92,0]	AB5C00
85	At	[117,79,69]	754F45
86	Rn	[66,130,150]	428296
87	Fr	[66,0,102]	420066
88	Ra	[0,125,0]	007D00
89	Air-conditioning	[112,171,250]	70ABFA
xc	Th	[0,186,255]	00BAFF
91	Pa	[0,161,255]	00A1FF
92	U	[0,143,255]	008FFF
93	Np	[0,128,255]	0080FF
94	Pu	[0,107,255]	006BFF
95	Am	[84,92,242]	545CF2
96	Cm	[120,92,227]	785CE3
97	Bk	[138,79,227]	8A4FE3
98	Cf	[161,54,212]	A136D4
99	Es	[179,31,212]	B31FD4
100	Fm	[179,31,186]	B31FBA
101	Md	[179,13,166]	B30DA6
102	No	[189,thirteen,135]	BD0D87
103	Lr	[199,0,102]	C70066
104	Rf	[204,0,89]	CC0059
105	Db	[209,0,79]	D1004F
106	Sg	[217,0,69]	D90045
107	Bh	[224,0,56]	E00038
108	Hs	[230,0,46]	E6002E
109	Mt	[235,0,38]	EB0026
110	Ds	unassigned
111	Rg	unassigned
112	Cn	unassigned
113	Nh	unassigned
114	Fl	unassigned
115	Mc	unassigned
116	Lv	unassigned
117	Ts	unassigned
118	Og	unassigned

CPK Colour Sources:

Corey and Pauling'due south original model description
Molecular Models of Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins
Robert B. CoreyandLinus Pauling
Review of Scientific Instruments 24:8, 621-627

Walter Koltun's Usa Patent
Space-filling atomic units and connectors for molecular models

Jmol Colors
http://jmol.sourceforge.net/jscolors/