Introduction: Heat Sensitive Silly Putty
Yup,
Im back with another instructable where i put Thermochromic pigment into something to make it heat sensitive.
This time its silly putty.
This is a really easy instructable where the hardest thing to do is actually find some non-heatsensitive, magnetic or glow in the dark silly putty.
Now heat sensitive silly putty is readability available to buy but generally it costs around £12 upwards and i have seen some priced at £29.99 (it is a 500g jar mind you)
but as you might know i have been dabbling with Thermochromic pigments over the last while so i had some to hand to make a cheaper alternative.
Just to be clear that by "cheaper" i mean that for 3 x 5g bags of different colours of Thermochromic pigment powder it cost me £17 but as i used about a level tea spoon of one bag for this instructable.
The silly putty cost me 0.75p
Step 1: Stuff You'll Need
Materials
Silly putty
Im using some bright pink stuff as i thought it would make a nice contrast to the purple it would turn when added with ...
Thermochromic pigment powder
I'm using blue here.
Tools
Something to mix it on, something that the powder/putty wont stick to like a paper plate or a bit of plastic
Step 2: Mix It In
Flatten out your putty.
Pour in some powder. as its a relatively small piece of putty i didn't need to use a lot to get a really striking purple.
Mix it in.
As you mix the putty/pigment together the heat from your hands will cause the mixture to change colour skewing the colour you think it is.
Step 3: Done
And thats it, you have now made your own heat sensitive colour change silly putty.
It still acts like normal silly putty in regards to it bounching, stretching and lifting newsprint off of paper but it also changes colour when exposed to heat. In this case from purple at room temp to pink when heated (31c)
I hope you enjoyed this instructable and please feel free to leave any comments, questions or pictures of your own silly putty creations below.

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9 Comments
7 years ago
I've been interested in doing something like this for an after school STEM club, but the thermo pigment is $20/oz (that I've seen) and the recipe for goo (v. silly putty) requires 3tsp. Are you award of a place to get it more cheaply--or have another idea?
Reply 7 years ago
Hi,
I purchased the pigment via etsy. Its not cheap I'm afraid, the cheapest i have found is around £5 (plus p&p) for a 5g bag of a single colour
8 years ago
Ah I know next to nothing about anything like this however I saw an ible with heat sensitive phone cover using thermo chromic pigment and I guessed that this used thermo chromic pigment too! I feel clever now :D
Reply 8 years ago
chances are the phone ible was one that i did :)
I am only finding out about this by mucking about with it :)
Reply 8 years ago
Oh it is! =3_-) I think I favourited that ible too :D (Btw the first face is a facepalm if you didn't get it xD)
8 years ago
Great idea! this would be way more fun than regular silly putty.
Reply 8 years ago
:D
8 years ago
Neat experiment, I enjoyed it thanks!
Reply 8 years ago
Im glad to hear you enjoyed it :)