Compositions and methods for forming coatings of selected color on a substrate and articles produced thereby

A coating method comprising the steps of:

• providing a copper containing coating component and a manganese containing coating component, and
• applying the copper containing component onto the surface of the substrate;
• heating the substrate;
• and
• applying the manganese containing component onto the surface of the heated substrate to pyrolyze a coating wherein the copper to manganese molar ratio in the coating as determined by XRF is in the range of about 0.8 to 1.2 and the coating has a blue color in transmission.

A coating method comprising the steps of:

• providing a copper containing coating component and a manganese containing coating component, and
• applying the manganese containing component onto the surface of the substrate;
• heating the substrate;
• and
• applying the copper containing component onto the surface of the heated substrate to pyrolyze a coating wherein the copper to manganese molar ratio in the coating as determined by XRF is in the range of about 0.8 to 1.2 and the coating has a blue color in transmission.

A method of preventing color bleaching, comprising the steps of:

• selecting a desired coating mixture having two or more components to be deposited on a surface of a substrate, each of the components including at least positive ions of a metal;
• determining the component having most mobile metal ions;
• depositing a concentration gradient deterrent layer of an oxide of the most mobile metal ions on the surface of the substrate;
• and
• applying the coating mixture over the concentration gradient deterrent layer.