• Question: What is the special ingredient contained in White Board Pens that helps them to get rubbed off easily?

    Asked by cewwen to Louise, Michaela, Steve on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Louise Johnson

      Louise Johnson answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      The whiteboard surface is more important for letting the ink be wiped off, because it’s non-porous and doesn’t let the ink soak in – you can’t wipe whiteboard marker straight off a wall or off your hand.

      The thing that’s special about whiteboard ink is that the solvents in it (usually benzyne or ketones acording to Professor Google) dry up really quickly. The ink doesn’t have time to collect into droplets so it dries as a powdery coating on the board.

    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Interesting question. I think it’s something to do with the solvent that it contains, but it’s not my field of expertise so I may be wrong.

    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      I don’t know im afraid.

      (UPDATE: my friend found the answer for me:

      methyl isobutyl ketone, n-butyl acetate OR
      denatured alcohol, isopropanol, diacetone alcohol OR
      Isopropanol and ethanol

      Thanks for my friend stuart for that 🙂 )

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