• Question: Is it possible to remove colour from objects???

    Asked by joe789 to Catherine, Charlotte, Colin, Becki, Rick on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Rebecca Scott

      Rebecca Scott answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      yes, in some cases it is. For example, in glass we could add managnese or antimony to counteract the effect of the iron. The iron would make the glass green and the manganese/antimony would oxidise the iron and change its state in the glass. The reduced colour of one element then counters the oxidised colour of the other making the glass colourless. Sometimes you can get glass that has been made colourless with manganese but if you leave it in the sun too long, the manganese will make the glass go purple and we call this solarisation.

    • Photo: Colin Swift

      Colin Swift answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Indeed – though it depends on the object – current household bleach can remove colour from some fabrics – though don’t try this at home on your parents best carpet! The sun can also bleach things too – due to the presence of UV in the light.

    • Photo: Charlotte Dalton

      Charlotte Dalton answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Yes like Colin said you can remove the pigment molecules which give it the colour, or instead if you could remove the ‘cone’ cells from your retina or disrupt the vision part of the brain you might be able to see in black and white

    • Photo: Rick Smith

      Rick Smith answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Like others have said, It really depends what causes the colour in the object. It is much easier to remove colours that are caused by less stable things like organic materials (plastics) than really stable things. In the past when they made stained glass windows for churches they used tiny nanoparticles of gold to make red colours (gold only looks red when we make the size of the particles of gold really really small). Even after hundreds of years the gold particles (and the windows) are still bright red because gold is so stable and doesn’t react with anything or get damaged.

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