The Chemistry World team has some fun with a few posts looking at chemistry-themed presents that could fill your stockings this year. Look out for more in the coming weeks…
I thought there might be some interesting chemistry involved in Moon Dough, set to be the one of the toy industry’s biggest sellers this Christmas. According to the manufacturer, it’s a ‘magical molding dough’ that never dries out.
A scale model of Stonehenge...obviously
A good start: the pleasant people at Spin Master were kind enough to send me a sample to play with. Thus, I can confirm that it is rather good fun – at least it was for the ten minutes or so that I spent fashioning abstract expressionist artworks. But my inexpert inspection didn’t help with determining the composition. And unfortunately the Spin Master people were less helpful on that front. They declined my offer of an interview on the grounds that they didn’t want to compromise the ‘secret recipe’ and when I asked for the patent number they didn’t reply.
But they did furnish me with an information sheet, which reassures everyone that Moon Dough is ‘completely non-toxic’, wheat-free and hypoallergenic. In addition, it lists 25 substances – mostly foodstuffs – that Moon Dough does not contain, including bizarrely crustaceans (a reference perhaps to chitosan, a polysaccharide derived from shrimp exoskeletons).
Moon Dough
Entertaining stuff – but not much use really. Pushing my finely-honed journalistic skills to the limits, I interrogated the packaging, which revealed the dough is made by a company called Delta of Sweden. My requests for an interview went unanswered. But the name led me to a patent application that seems to cover if not the very same technology in Moon Dough something very similar.
It describes a material comprising hard particles coated in a hydroxyl-terminated polymer, such as silicon oil, with a boron-containing compound to provide cross-linking, which increases viscosity – the inventors suggest boronic acid. This brings to mind silly putty, which at its discovery in 1943 was a simple mix of silicone oil and boric acid. (In contrast, Play-Doh is a water-based mixture.) And the chemistry therefore would be pretty simple. Water is removed and voila: the material doesn’t dry out because there isn’t any water in it.
In fact, water is likely to mess things up a bit by sending the reaction in reverse. In addition, the lack of water, the authors note, should help to keep bacteria at bay, a benefit during play groups and the such like, when the material is likely to be passed from one child to the next.
Is this the stuff in Moon Dough? Without some further input from the companies, I’m not going to know – so I’ll open the floor to other guesses (sensible or otherwise).
Andrew Turley
Fri 3 Dec 2010 at 9:11 pm
[...] The mystery of Moon Dough It describes a material comprising hard particles coated in a hydroxyl-terminated polymer, such as silicon oil, with a boron-containing compound to provide cross-linking, which increases viscosity – the inventors suggest boronic acid. This brings to mind silly putty, which at its discovery in 1943 was a simple mix of silicone oil and boric acid. (In contrast, Play-Doh is a water-based mixture.) And the chemistry therefore would be pretty simple. Water is removed and voila: the material doesn’t dry out because there isn’t any water in it. [...]
Sun 6 Mar 2011 at 11:37 pm
Good job, I had no idea how silly putty and play-doh were developed… I like the way you tie in science to the toy.
Fri 17 Jun 2011 at 5:13 am
So I’m trying to make this in bulk so do you think just buying silly putty and mixing it with fine sand will make the dough? It’s a bit expensive to buy in bulk from the company directly.
Tue 21 Jun 2011 at 1:58 pm
Hi Kristi
It seems from the patent application that the binding material has to be created in situ, around the grains:
‘Since the material composition 1 includes a very high proportion of material in particulate or granular form, this implies that it would be difficult, not to say impossible, to use a method where particles 2 are kneaded into the binder 3, which displays quite a high viscosity.’
Put simple, if you started with the binding material already made, you would never be able to disperse all that sand evenly through it. Or, to think of it another way, you wouldn’t be able to coat the individual grains – the stuff would be simply too sticky.
Wed 5 Oct 2011 at 2:17 am
[...] Arts combine: clay modeling Ecuador — THINK Global SchoolClay Modeling Prim 1 LbWicked SatisfyingChemistry World blog body { background-image: [...]
Wed 11 Jan 2012 at 10:09 pm
[...] was a bit curious as to how it works, and I found this interesting article on the Chemistry World blog. Go and have a look! Then go and buy some and play with it. You really [...]
Sun 18 Mar 2012 at 4:39 pm
The moon dough is pretty cool and it’s pretty cool that it’s not Play Dough. It’s not wet and that’s pretty cool, kinda like dry Silly Putty. It’s pretty interesting that there’s no water in the Moon Dough and no liquid water on the moon, I guess that’s why they call it Moon Dough! When I first opened my package I thought it was made out of dry crumbly plastic, so I liked learning what it might really be made out of. Thank you!
From Katie (age 4)
Mon 7 May 2012 at 5:50 pm
YIKES! I don’t know what this stuff is…but….what a messy product for young children. I bought the farm for my 3 year old, almost 4, and it was one disappointment after another. Between the handle constantly falling off the barn, the stuff crumbling or getting stuck in the molds, the a mess it made all over the floor…which is picked up my little feet and carried throughout the house, this stuff has an awful odor. In spite of my dissatisfaction, my granddaughter love it, played with it for hours.