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What Happens When You Add a Silly Putty Ingredient to Sand? You Get "Kinetic Sand"

By Rain Noe - September 19, 2013

in Materials

Denmark may have the lockdown on Lego, but a neighboring country is also producing something children can use to build things: Sand. No ordinary sand, of course. A company called Delta of Sweden, which manufactures modeling compounds for use in the educational, medical, therapeutic and arts & crafts markets, has an invention called Deltasand. The stuff has been licensed by several toymakers, most notably Colorado-based WABA Fun, who have produced this video demonstrating the product (rebranded "Kinetic Sand"):

What ingredient could the manufacturers have possibly added to make the sand behave that way? You probably noticed the video mentions the product is 98% sand, but neglects to tell you what the rest of it is—leading one cynical YouTube commenter to respond with "98% pure sand, 2% deadly chemical compounds."

We did a little digging into Delta of Sweden's product-specific medical fact sheet (the document you bring to the doctor after you notice all of the sand has disappeared and Billy's belly looks full). While the proportions are not revealed, there are only two ingredients listed: "silicon dioxid" [sic] and "polydimethyl siloxane."

Silicon dioxide, which is what we assume they meant, is basically sand and presumably the 98% part.

Polydimethyl siloxane or PDMS, on the other hand, is a rubbery, viscoelastic material that's a key ingredient in Silly Putty.

So is it safe? It better be: PDMS, a silicone agent found in caulk, can also be used as an antifoaming agent—something that both McDonald's and Wendy's list in their ingredients for Chicken McNuggets and french fries!

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Gerald Fnord

11 years ago

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Looks neat...but I wouldn't taunt it, if I were you....
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Robb

11 years ago

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Time to raid the kids sand box.

http://www.amazon.com/MakingCosmetics-Inc-Dimethicone-500-4-2floz/dp/B00AFP6O82/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379695420&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Polydimethyl+siloxane
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Dave Park

11 years ago

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This is the same technology as has been used in the industrial process of extrusion honing for at least 30 years.
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Hannah

11 years ago

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Dioxid is the Swedish spelling for the English word dioxide.
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Slam1263

11 years ago

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Somehow, I think it might be safer for the kids to play in the cat box.

At least if they ingest anything, it's all natural.
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Dan

11 years ago

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More info here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydimethylsiloxane

and for an idea of costs, http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/470787746/Dimethicone_Polydimethylsiloxane_Trimethylsiloxyl_terminated_99_.html

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pete irwin

11 years ago

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Here is the kids version of kinetic Sand.

www.skwooshi.com
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vandebar

11 years ago

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Good thing it's gluten free. I was planning on eating this.
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