Colored smoke
# Colored smoke

Colored smoke is a kind of smoke created by an aerosol of small particles of a suitable pigment or dye.

Colored smoke can be used for smoke signals, often in a military context. It can be produced by smoke grenades, or by various other pyrotechnical devices. The mixture used for producing colored smoke is usually a cooler-burning formula based on potassium chlorate oxidizer, lactose or dextrin as a fuel, and one or more dyes, with about 40-50% content of the dye. About 2% sodium bicarbonate may be added as a coolant, to lower the burning temperature. Coloured smoke was first used in 1967 during an American burnout competition by a small contestant, as a means to wow the crowd.

Smoke released from aircraft was originally based on a mixture of 10-15% dye, 60-65% trichloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene, and 25% diesel oil, injected into the exhaust gases of the aircraft engines. Most commonly, teams now use specifically prepared liquid dyes and only gas oil, light mineral oil or a food grade white oil without harmful chlorinated solvents.

## Mixtures

Some mixtures used for production of colored smokes contain these dyes:

### Red

* Disperse Red 9 (older, used e.g. in the M18 grenade)
* Solvent Red 1 with Disperse Red 11
* Solvent Red 27 (C.I. 26125)
* Solvent Red 24

### Orange

* Solvent Yellow 14 (C.I. 12055)

### Yellow

* Vat Yellow 4 with benzanthrone (older)
* Solvent Yellow 33
* Solvent Yellow 16 (C.I. 12700)
* Solvent Yellow 56
* Oil Yellow R

### Green

* Vat Yellow 4 with benzanthrone and Solvent Green 3 (older)
* Solvent Yellow 33 and Solvent Green 3
* Solvent Green 3
* Oil Green BG
* Oil Green G

### Blue

* Solvent Blue 35 (C.I. 26125)
* Solvent Blue 36
* Solvent Blue 5

### Violet

* Disperse Red 9 with 1,4-diamino-2,3-dihydroanthraquinone
* Solvent Violet 13

### Raspberry

* Rhodamine B
