Question: how many dyes have you made???

Martin Wieczysty answered on 6 Mar 2015:

Hi Diamond!

I have only made one – as a powder it is a dark orange/red colour, but when you DISSOLVE it (similar to adding salt to water) it is a yellow liquid.
It takes many months to run lots of experiments and try and make the dye the best way we can.
Imagine you were to make spaghetti bolognese. Your basic ingredients are tomatoes, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, mince, and pasta. But it can be made many different ways, and taste completely different depending on how you cook it.
– You could add everything in one go, but it probably wouldn’t taste very nice and the pasta may be a bit chewey.
– Is it better to fry the onions first before adding the tomato sauce?
– Do you use fresh tomatoes or tinned chopped tomatoes?

Similarly in chemistry, you have to decide what chemicals to add, and what quality they have to be. Can you add all the chemicals to the flask in one go or do you add things slowly – (try adding bicarbonate of soda, found in baking powder to vinegar – add a little bit at a time and there is a small amount of fizzing, but add in a lot at ounce and it may froth up and overflow!).

So it takes time to try all the different combinations of chemicals, how you add them, how hot you have to run the reaction etc.
So although I have made only one dye for the past 14 months, I get to make a sunshine yellow colour every day which makes me happy.

Hope this helps

Martin