[Histonet] colour change - slightly OT

[louise renton]

Hello all, in order to take things away from the (by now) heated
discussions on unions and med techs, how about solving a little
chemical mystery?

My colleague is trying out a MMA home brew consisting of: MMA powder,
di butyl pthalate (?sp) with the accelerator dimethyl analine. On
placing these blocks in the incubator at 56deg C overnight, some of
the blocks turned a deep mahogany brown. Those that were not exposed
to air (ie kept in sealed bottles while polymerization took place) did
not acchieve this dark hue, but remained a sort of translucent straw
colour.

SO- whats the chemistry here? any ideas - I am merely curious - the
inetegrity pf the sections has not been compromised

best regards

--
Louise Renton
Bone Research Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Africa
"Does a conceited cowboy, only ride on pompous grass?.