SrUDENT SCIENCE

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Chemistry
Heat-resistant makeup
New recipe for camouflage face paint could protect soldiers against bums from bomb blasts
by Sid Perkins [1]
When you hear the word "makeup" you may think about the stuff your sister uses to cover a zit or what
your aunt uses to camouflage wrinkles or dark spots. But sometimes makeup serves to hide not a facial
imperfection but rather the whole face. Consider hunten and soldiers who may paint their faces a mix of
green, brown and other natural colors to blend into the environment.
Now, researchers have developed a new type of camouflage makeup for troops. Its added advantage: It
helps protect soldiers from the hot blast of a nearby explosion, such as those from the roadside bombs that
have injured many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An explosion produces powerful pressure waves. It also generates an intense wave of heat that can exceed
600Celsius (1,112Fahrenheit) a temperature as hot as a burning cigarette. Although the blast wave
lasts only about 2seconds, that's long enough to bum the upper layers of a soldier's face, hands or other
exposed skin surfaces.
Developing a makeup to protect soldiers from such intense heat was a big challenge, says Robert
Lochhead, a polymer chemist at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. (A polymer chemist
specializes in the design, manufacture, use and anaysis of chemical substances whose molecules are long
chains made of repeating groups of atoms.)
For starters, the new face paint had to have all the characteristics of makeup that soldiers now use: It had to
be easy to apply and remove; waterproof; not irritate the eyes, nose or mouth; and resist mbbing off easily.
And like today's makeup, it had to come in light brown ("sand"), dark brown ("soil"), green ("jungle"),
white ("snow") and black colors. Finally, it had to include as much as 35 percent DEET. That's an insect
repellent, but one that happens to be highly flammable.
For their heat-masking camouflage, Lochhead and his team replaced traditional ingredients that can easily
bum like hydrocarbons, fatty substances and mineral oil with heat-resistant alternatives known as
silicones. They relied on the usual pigments to generate all of the colors they needed. But the team used a
special chemical technique to make individual particles of pigment come together into large clumps; this
helped the makeup reflect the heat of a blast. (That trick was previously developed by other scientists, says
Lochhead.) Finally, the team mixed in the DEET. But rather than adding it as a liquid, they packed the
insect repellent inside microscopic capsules of a gel-like material. This gel also holds water, a trick that
helps keep the repellent from catching fire.
Lochhead described his team's new makeup on August 22at the American Chemical Society meeting in
Philadelphia.
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"This research is very interesting," says Anjali Patil, a senior scientist at cosmetics company Revlon in
Edison, N J. "They're using polymers and pigments in a different way."
Tests suggest that the new makeup can protect a soldier's face and hands for up to 15 seconds before its
own temperature rises to 60C(l-WF), the point at which mild bums can occur. In some situations, the
new recipe provides protection from heat for as much as 1 minute. That suggests a colorless version of this
makeup might be useful for firefighters or other people occasionally exposed to extreme heat on the job.
"I'm really impressed with this work," says Jamil Baghdachi, a polymer scientist at Eastern Michigan
University in Ypsilanti. "This is one of the most practical applications of science that I've seen."
Power Words
camouflage Techniques and pattems that enable otherwise visible objects to remain unnoticed by blending
with their environment. Examples include the spotted pattern on a young deer's coat, the shape and color of
certain butterflies and stick insects, and the colors and pattems often seen on hunting gear and soldiers'
uniforms.
pigment A material used to change the color of light reflected off of an object or transmitted through it.
The overall color of a pigment typically depends on which wavelengths of visible light it absorbs and
which ones it reflects. For e.xample, a red pigment tends to reflect red wavelengths of light very well and
typically absorbs other colors.
polymer Substances whose molecules are made of long chains of repeating groups of atoms.
Manufactured polymers include nylon, polyvinyl chloride (better known as PVC) and many types of
plastics. Natural polymers include mbber, silk and cellulose (found in plants and used to make paper, for
example).
silicone Heat-resistant substances that can be used in many different ways, including the rubber-like
materials that provide a waterproof seal around windows and in aquariums. Some silicones serve as grease-
like lubricants in cars and trucks. Most silicones, a type of molecule known as a polymer, are built around
long chains of silicon and oxygen atoms.
Source URL: https://student.societyforscience.org/article/heat-resistant-makeup
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