(Copyright: Smithery)
A new study reveals that scientists have been able to use a “simple chemical reaction” to make lead-based ink disappear and reappear again.
According to a blog post by Discover Magazine, the study was published in Nature Communications this week and describes how “a group of scientists showcased that lead-based ink can be reversibly made invisible with salt”.
The researchers used an inkjet printer with a customised ink cartridge and “printed images and writing onto parchment paper” but what they printed was invisible and did not even show up under ambient or UV lighting. However, by adding halide salt, the ink became visible.
Previous such efforts to create invisible ink have failed of their promise, with the negative aspects outweighing the benefits and difficulties being encountered in making the ink properly invisible.
While this new study has achieved greater success, the scientists have used lead as “the decryption method” and as lead is toxic, this poses its own problems. All is not lost yet though, as scientists have explained that “there could be an alternative to lead because several studies have indicated” that the use of non-toxic tin could also be potentially viable.
It seems that the invisible ink J.K. Rowling wrote about in Harry Potter might not be just a figment of the imagination after all.