Pen ink faded off upon heat(or maybe sunlight)

coconut62

Last month I bought one of those pens which you can rub off your writings with a kind of rubber at the end of the pen. I was so happy because I don't need to use correction pens anymore, so I did all of my maths exercises with that pen. One Friday, my books was very heavy so i left some inside the car. On monday when I take it to school, open it, I discovered in horror that all my writings has GONE. Some of them already became transparent, while some of them were still fading off. I was like wtf man, how can you be like this? Evaporated just because of a little sun??? In the end, I have to redo all my exercises.

Can someone tell me what is the composition of that pen ink which makes it evaporate under heat? And my maths papers were not directly exposed to sunlight, it was at the bottom of one or two books and I kept them all in those plastic clear holders.

Seriously what kind of witchcraft is this? Monster it is.

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Borek

Adds a new twist to "dog ate my homework", doesn't it?

I don't think it "evaporated", more like the dye decomposed, perhaps by reacting with some of the paper compounds or air oxygen. If it was heated, such process should speed up, even several times (which can mean all your notes will disappear eventually even without heating).

There are also other possibilities - were your books lying close to something? Pen itself?

coconut62

What would *possibly* happen if my books were lying right beside my pen?

Borek

Very unlikely, but IF the compound responsible for decoloration is volatile, and IF the pen was heated, some of the vapors could penetrate into your notes and react with the dye in the ink. I have reasons to doubt that's what have happened, still, I can't rule that 100% out.

chemisttree

The ink was formulated to fade with the heat of friction erasing produces! It never is really removed when you 'erase'. It just becomes transparent. It should reappear when exposed to something like -14F. Sounds like freezing your notes will make them reappear. I wonder if your freezer gets that cold...

Sounds like some funky liquid crystal technology.

coconut62

I don't understand your logic, do you mean that the compound responsible for decoloration is INSIDE the pen? And the pen is making its own ink decolorise?


To CHEMISTTREE:
YES. I wrote a few words on a paper with it and then I put the paper under a hairdryer. After a few seconds, the ink faded off. I quickly removed the paper and it magically reappeared. But after I applied heat for a longer time, it never reappeared again. I think they became transparent permanently, just like my homework

chemisttree

Try putting it in the freezer and see if the ink color reappears. Cheap test, no?