# Name Some Chemical Compounds with Remarkable Colours or Smells
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 31, 2019, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818 "2019-05-31T10:21:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/41 "2019-06-03T01:48:47Z")
Liquid oxygen soaked charcoal has been used as an explosive.
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### Author:  [@SuperAbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperAbe)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/42 "2019-06-03T03:53:46Z")
> [@tampora](#):
>
> I’ve been told that C17H21NO4 has a very exhilarating smell.
That kind of comment is a little on the nose…
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/43 "2019-06-03T12:51:27Z")
> [@drachillix](#):
>
> If you have ever seen liquid oxygen, its a beautiful blue color
I know, very pale but a nice blue. Did some measurements on it in Thermo lab back in college.
I mentioned this here long ago and got challenged about it. Now I can at least point to the Wikipedia article on it.
Scary stuff.
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### Author:  [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/44 "2019-06-03T16:40:21Z")
Vantablack, the worlds blackest substance, can absorb over 99.9% of visible light. And only one person in the world, Anish Kapoor, can use it for “Art”.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack)
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/45 "2019-06-03T16:48:54Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> Dimethyl telluride (CH[sub]3[/sub])[sub]2[/sub]Te smells like garlic and can be smelled in the breath of victims of tellurium poisoning.
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> The other is that cyanide smells like bitter almonds.
There is a plot to a mystery novel in there someplace.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2019, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/46 "2019-06-04T11:59:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> You did.
Ded it again.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/47 "2019-06-04T12:10:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> If anybody knows what purple flowers do this, let me know.
I can’t tell you what the flowers were, but I can tell you the pigment family which was probably involved: [anthocyanins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin) (wiki). A version with [longer words](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/anthocyanin) (science direct).
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/48 "2019-06-05T06:03:17Z")
[Putrecine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrescine) and [cadaverine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaverine) are two nasty-smelling compounds found in decaying flesh. They’re worth knowing just for the names.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/49 "2019-06-05T12:00:30Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#):
>
> [Putrecine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrescine) and [cadaverine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaverine) are two nasty-smelling compounds found in decaying flesh.
And possibly limburger cheese.
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### Author:  [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/50 "2019-06-05T15:24:36Z")
> [@am77494](#):
>
> Yes and of all the chemical plants I have been through, liquid oxygen plants scare me the most. Because around liquid oxygen, you are the fuel, the asphalt road is the fuel and your clothes can be the fuel.
>
> There is an old military video (sexist in my opinion) but it shows the dangers of liquid oxygen (LOX). Warning : it has graphic pictures near the end.
>
> [https://youtu.be/Q9sIT6P\_05I](https://youtu.be/Q9sIT6P_05I)
When I was shown how to use a high vac pump for drying compounds as an undergrad, the instructor was very clear on how to handle the cold trap - once finished with the pump and opening the system to air, if you leave the trap sitting in the liq nitrogen dewar it will start to condense liquid oxygen. Given the trap will often also contain volatile hydrocarbons you’ve stripped off your samples, this is a good way to make a small bomb. So don’t ever do this.
Don’t know if he was being alarmist or not, but some people I subsequently worked with didn’t get this same training - I’ve seen liq oxygen condensed a few times over the years on vac pump traps. Once enquired in a slightly panicked voice what the pale blue liquid was in the vac line trap of a French co-worker. He just gave a Gallic shrug, removed the trap and lashed the contents on the floor 🙂
That’s one way to deal with LOX - athough it was only a few mL tbf.
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### Author:  [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/51 "2019-06-05T15:57:44Z")
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned [William Henry Perkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Perkin) and his “serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine” to quote Wikipedia. It’s one of those stories that I seem to hear over and over. I’m not sure if the dye is named after the color or the color is named after the dye, since the dye made the color so easy to produce.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/52 "2019-06-05T19:10:39Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> There is a plot to a mystery novel in there someplace.
It’s been done. There is a Dorothy Sayres short story, I don’t recall the title, about someone who was poisoned–accidentally IIRC–by pouring a drink from an old bottle of amoretto that had not moved for a long time so that the cyanide had concentrated in the top. Then there is a recent novel, “The three body problem” by Catherine Shaw, which I won’t spoil further, that uses this as a pot device.
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### Author:  [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/53 "2019-06-05T21:11:40Z")
> [@motu](#):
>
> Vantablack, the worlds blackest substance, can absorb over 99.9% of visible light. And only one person in the world, Anish Kapoor, can use it for “Art”.
>
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack)
Wow, that’s cool. I remember my physics professor in the doing a gimmick where he put up 2 pieces of paper on a cardboard box, both with black squares in the middle. One was noticeably darker. He said if you could make an ink that black you’d make millions. It was a square hole cut out of the box. 😃
This looks like it could be that substance.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/54 "2019-06-05T22:00:34Z")
> [@Ashtura](#):
>
> Wow, that’s cool. I remember my physics professor in the doing a gimmick where he put up 2 pieces of paper on a cardboard box, both with black squares in the middle. One was noticeably darker. He said if you could make an ink that black you’d make millions. It was a square hole cut out of the box. 😃
>
> This looks like it could be that substance.
There was a bit of a reaction to Anish Kapoor’s “blackest black,” such that an artist named Stuart Semple came up with [the world’s pinkest pink](https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/pink-50g-powdered-paint-by-stuart-semple), and made it available to anyone except Anish Kapoor. Yeah, a stunt, but a fun one. (And, from what I’ve read and heard, it really is a damned pink pink.)
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2019, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/55 "2019-06-06T05:05:45Z")
> [@pmwgreen](#):
>
> I’m surprised nobody has mentioned [William Henry Perkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Perkin) and his “serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine” to quote Wikipedia. It’s one of those stories that I seem to hear over and over. I’m not sure if the dye is named after the color or the color is named after the dye, since the dye made the color so easy to produce.
The dye after the color.
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### Author:  [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/56 "2019-06-06T06:02:14Z")
Does mimeograph ink count?
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### Author:  [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2019, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/57 "2019-06-06T06:13:11Z")
Missed the edit window re mimeograph ink. The color appears unique, and the scent, well, how can you forget it?
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/58 "2019-06-06T12:40:21Z")
> [@Personal](#):
>
> Does mimeograph ink count?
You are probably talking about the alcohol smell from a “[ditto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator)” machine, aka a “spirit duplicator”. It uses a 50/50 mix of isopropanol and methanol.
A mimeograph machine uses a stencil process and is far less smelly.
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### Author:  [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/59 "2019-06-06T22:30:38Z")
Yes, thank you.
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### Author:  [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-chemical-compounds-with-remarkable-colours-or-smells/834818/60 "2019-06-07T00:02:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> There was a bit of a reaction to Anish Kapoor’s “blackest black,” such that an artist named Stuart Semple came up with [the world’s pinkest pink](https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/pink-50g-powdered-paint-by-stuart-semple), and made it available to anyone except Anish Kapoor. Yeah, a stunt, but a fun one. (And, from what I’ve read and heard, it really is a damned pink pink.)
And Anish Kapoor’s reaction…
slightly NSFW, [http://https://www.newser.com/story/236079/artists-feud-over-pinkest-pink-escalates.html](http://https://www.newser.com/story/236079/artists-feud-over-pinkest-pink-escalates.html)
BTW, Anish Kapoor is the Milenium Park Bean guy.
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