Thermochromic Imaging

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[clarii_d] is currently finishing up her thesis project on thermochromic pigment to silkscreen receipts. The idea behind it is that when a receipt is touched, part of it fades revealing a hidden message.

As you can guess, thermochromic paint is a type of substance that changes color when introduced to heat — or in this case, fades altogether. Remember when mood rings were all the rage? Same thing.

In her project she is using silkscreening to transfer text onto the back of receipt paper using regular ink. Once dried, she silkscreens an image over top of the message, this time using a thermochromic pigment. The result is a slightly obscured image, but after holding it for a few seconds, it disappears and only the text remains.

Color-changing anything is a bit gimmicky, but we think [clarii_d’s] project is a pretty cool and unique application of it. A few years ago we shared another interesting project utilizing thermochromism; a color-changing clock face that utilized the heat given off by resistors!

10 thoughts on “Thermochromic Imaging

  1. I don’t see any reference to receipt paper in the instructables, it only mentioned to try out your positioning on newsprint before you use the good paper.

    Is there a link to the thesis?

    A lot of till receipts are printed on heat sensitive paper. If you heat it up it just goes black, which may add an interesting additional dimension.

    1. I came to say something similar. Thermal paper is full of tricks.

      Further, most of the big payroll companies already have heat sensitive inks on their cut checks as an anti-forgery measure. Hiding a message may be novel, but I am uncertain what could be done with the technique (other than write a paper about it).

  2. Please be careful, as I understand it, the receipt paper contains huge amounts of “bisphenol s” which is both a toxic *endocrine disruptor* and an ‘obesogen’ a chemical that causes morbid obesity in the exposed and their offspring.

    See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?linkname=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=22591511

    Bisphenol s, a new bisphenol analogue, in paper products and currency bills and its association with bisphenol a residues.

    Liao C, Liu F, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Jun 19;46(12):6515-22. doi: 10.1021/es300876n. Epub 2012 May 25.

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    22591511
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    Select item 219392832.

    Widespread occurrence of bisphenol A in paper and paper products: implications for human exposure.

    Liao C, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Nov 1;45(21):9372-9. doi: 10.1021/es202507f. Epub 2011 Oct 5.

    PMID:
    21939283
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    Select item 226202673.

    Bisphenol S in urine from the United States and seven Asian countries: occurrence and human exposures.

    Liao C, Liu F, Alomirah H, Loi VD, Mohd MA, Moon HB, Nakata H, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Jun 19;46(12):6860-6. doi: 10.1021/es301334j. Epub 2012 Jun 7.

    PMID:
    22620267
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    Select item 217448514.

    High levels of bisphenol A in paper currencies from several countries, and implications for dermal exposure.

    Liao C, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Aug 15;45(16):6761-8. doi: 10.1021/es200977t. Epub 2011 Jul 21.

    PMID:
    21744851
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    Select item 227841905.

    Occurrence of eight bisphenol analogues in indoor dust from the United States and several Asian countries: implications for human exposure.

    Liao C, Liu F, Guo Y, Moon HB, Nakata H, Wu Q, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Aug 21;46(16):9138-45. doi: 10.1021/es302004w. Epub 2012 Jul 31.

    PMID:
    22784190
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    Select item 236148056.

    Concentrations and profiles of bisphenol A and other bisphenol analogues in foodstuffs from the United States and their implications for human exposure.

    Liao C, Kannan K.

    J Agric Food Chem. 2013 May 15;61(19):4655-62. doi: 10.1021/jf400445n. Epub 2013 May 3.

    PMID:
    23614805
    [PubMed – in process]

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    Select item 228467607.

    Levels of bisphenol-A in thermal paper receipts from Belgium and estimation of human exposure.

    Geens T, Goeyens L, Kannan K, Neels H, Covaci A.

    Sci Total Environ. 2012 Oct 1;435-436:30-3. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.07.001. Epub 2012 Jul 28.

    PMID:
    22846760
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    Select item 242620008.

    A survey of bisphenol A and other bisphenol analogues in foodstuffs from nine cities in China.

    Liao C, Kannan K.

    Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2013 Nov 21. [Epub ahead of print]

    PMID:
    24262000
    [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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    Select item 217326339.

    Urinary bisphenol A concentrations and their implications for human exposure in several Asian countries.

    Zhang Z, Alomirah H, Cho HS, Li YF, Liao C, Minh TB, Mohd MA, Nakata H, Ren N, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Aug 15;45(16):7044-50. doi: 10.1021/es200976k. Epub 2011 Jul 20.

    PMID:
    21732633
    [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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    Bisphenol A in supermarket receipts and its exposure to human in Shenzhen, China.

    Lu SY, Chang WJ, Sojinu SO, Ni HG.

    Chemosphere. 2013 Aug;92(9):1190-4. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.01.096. Epub 2013 Feb 26.

    PMID:
    23484460
    [PubMed – in process]

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    Select item 2246601911.

    4-Nonylphenol and bisphenol A in Swedish food and exposure in Swedish nursing women.

    Gyllenhammar I, Glynn A, Darnerud PO, Lignell S, van Delft R, Aune M.

    Environ Int. 2012 Aug;43:21-8. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2012.02.010. Epub 2012 Mar 30.

    PMID:
    22466019
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    Bisphenol analogues in sediments from industrialized areas in the United States, Japan, and Korea: spatial and temporal distributions.

    Liao C, Liu F, Moon HB, Yamashita N, Yun S, Kannan K.

    Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Nov 6;46(21):11558-65. doi: 10.1021/es303191g. Epub 2012 Oct 12.

    PMID:
    23020513
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    Bisphenol A in 24 h urine and plasma samples of the German Environmental Specimen Bank from 1995 to 2009: a retrospective exposure evaluation.

    Koch HM, Kolossa-Gehring M, Schröter-Kermani C, Angerer J, Brüning T.

    J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2012 Nov;22(6):610-6. doi: 10.1038/jes.2012.39. Epub 2012 May 23.

    PMID:
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    Determination of free and conjugated forms of bisphenol A in human urine and serum by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

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    Environ Sci Technol. 2012 May 1;46(9):5003-9. doi: 10.1021/es300115a. Epub 2012 Apr 19.

    PMID:
    22489688
    [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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    Automated on-line column-switching high performance liquid chromatography isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of bisphenol A, bisphenol F, bisphenol S, and 11 other phenols in urine.

    Zhou X, Kramer JP, Calafat AM, Ye X.

    J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2013 Nov 13;944C:152-156. doi: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2013.11.009. [Epub ahead of print]

    PMID:
    24316527
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    Quantitation of bisphenol A and bisphenol A glucuronide in biological samples by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

    Völkel W, Bittner N, Dekant W.

    Drug Metab Dispos. 2005 Nov;33(11):1748-57. Epub 2005 Aug 15.

    PMID:
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    Free Article

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    Select item 2053726417.

    Bisphenol a in canned food products from canadian markets.

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    J Food Prot. 2010 Jun;73(6):1085-9.

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    Determination of bisphenol A in wine by sol-gel immunoaffinity chromatography, HPLC and fluorescence detection.

    Brenn-Struckhofova Z, Cichna-Markl M.

    Food Addit Contam. 2006 Nov;23(11):1227-35.

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    Simultaneous determination of bisphenol A and bisphenol B in beverages and powdered infant formula by dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction and heart-cutting multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

    Cunha SC, Almeida C, Mendes E, Fernandes JO.

    Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2011 Apr;28(4):513-26. doi: 10.1080/19440049.2010.542551. Epub 2011 Feb 17.

    PMID:
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    Assessment of risk to humans of bisphenol A in marine and freshwater fish from Pearl River Delta, China.

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    Chemosphere. 2011 Sep;85(1):122-8. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.05.038. Epub 2011 Jun 22.

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    1. Now I really like papers, and really like it when people put the effort in to finding them. However it is of no value if the citations require me to pay 20-60 bucks a shot to read them.

    2. Maybe it’s them “obesogens” in all the biscuits I shove down my face that’ve given me this belly! The bastards!

      For the endocrines, I still can’t grow a proper beard and I didn’t really fancy having organic children anyway.

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