Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Chemicals that color everything even when invisible

ChemTalk - 31-1-2021 at 12:08

Hello everyone,

Long time lurker but first time posting here. Thanks so much for the wealth of knowledge everyone contributes here, it is a very special community.

Anyways, on to the topic. So after carefully transferring a few chemicals from a paper bag (bought from a pottery store) into a bottle, I realized that some chemicals just color or stain everything everywhere, even if you can't see their powder anywhere.

Previously I only had potassium permanganate in this category, but I am now adding a second - green chromium oxide. You could clean it up over and over, and not see anymore powder - but it's there coloring everything green when you wipe the area again!

So does anyone have a chemical to add to this "list" ?

ChemTalk
chemistrytalk.org



[Edited on 1-31-2021 by ChemTalk]

Fyndium - 31-1-2021 at 12:24

Same as there are compounds that have extremely low taste treshold, odor treshold, so there seems to be extremely intensive colorants.

Which these might be? A minimum amount to dye a sample with strong color?

woelen - 31-1-2021 at 12:43

Rhodamine B really is horrible. KMnO4 only has weak color, compared to rhodamine B. I purchased 100 grams of this dye as a fine powder. I received a plastic bag, a ziplock bag, filled with the powder, inside a second ziplock bag and that in a bubble envelope. When I tranferred the powder to a bottle, everything seemed clean, I had worked cleanly and no visible spills were around the bottle. But when I put a label on the bottle and took it in my hands, I got pink/red stains everywhere. When I rinsed my hands, the water running off my hands was red and the white ceramic sink was stained pink. It was horrible. I had very pink hands for a few days, just unnaturally looking.

Bezaleel - 31-1-2021 at 18:11

Quote: Originally posted by Fyndium  
Same as there are compounds that have extremely low taste treshold, odor treshold, so there seems to be extremely intensive colorants.

Which these might be? A minimum amount to dye a sample with strong color?

But they also should be very sticky. Some substances just flush out easily, and so they aren't persistent.

Like I had a horrible time cleaning out the red nickel dimethylglyoxime complex from a PTFE beaker. It still has a pinkish hue to it, despite cleaning it with water, ethanol, acetone, hydrochloric acid, and bleach. PTFE just hasn't got the surface smoothness of glass.

symboom - 31-1-2021 at 20:18

Oh silver nitrate is really bad you think things are clean and the next day you see what you missed silver stains alot.
Not really part of the list but gallium is really messy it sticks to everything.

TheMrbunGee - 1-2-2021 at 05:39

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_green_(dye)

It has been almost 2 years since transferring, and I still get a green specks from time to time.

[Edited on 1-2-2021 by TheMrbunGee]