when sunlight fades colors, what is actually happening?

Question

As in paint, dye, ink, etc

In: 5

Answer 1

The UV in the sunlight degrades the dye, the same way it can damage your skin and give you sunburn. The energy from the photons can actually break bits off molecules – and since dye molecules tend to be a bit ungainly and fragile, this is relatively common. The broken molecules don’t absorb/reflect the same wavelengths of light, so they no longer work as dye.