Homemade Dilution Liquid Causes Strange Chemical Reaction?

April 20, 2022

I've recently purchased a CMYK set of Diamine inks to get started with ink mixing. While I waited for it to arrive, I had made my own dilution liquid from 100ml water (not distilled), 5 ml glycerin, and 0.5 ml dish soap. However, I noticed right away that there were these cloudy looking floaties developing in the liquid. At first I sucked them out with a syringe and used the liquid in ink mixes anyway. I really enjoy pale inks but diluting with plain water tends to make inks too dry, so I thought that this dilution liquid was a great idea. The DIY dilution liquid helped give dry inks a wet and lubricated feel, even after diluting to the point that the colour was super pale.

Well, fast forward a few weeks and I accidentally knocked over my closed bottle of dilution liquid, and low and behold it was FULL of the floaty stuff, which had just settled to the bottom of the bottle. Of course I immediately got rid of the liquid because it was pretty gross and I didn't want that stuff gunking up my pens.

I thought I would try again, this time using boiled distilled water and a sanitised bottle, which would hopefully kill any organisms that might have caused the growth. But even after all of that, I still noticed floaties immediately after mixing up the same ingredients. Even more strange, after letting the liquid sit for a bit, it became full of these small, shimmering flakes which look like glitter.

My guess is that the floaties and the glitter-flakes are from some sort of chemical reaction between the glycerin, dish soap, and possibly even trace minerals in the water. Does anyone have an idea of what might be causing this sort of reaction? Or better yet, any recipes for dilution liquids that have actually worked? Or is plain distilled water the only way to go, and dryness is an unavoidable consequence?

TLDR; Water, glycerin, and dish soap mix as a DIY ink dilution liquid caused a strange reaction. Wondering what might have caused the reaction and if any successful recipes for dilution liquids exist.

April 20, 2022

2 hours ago, Epiphany Writes said:

Or better yet, any recipes for dilution liquids that have actually worked? Or is plain distilled water the only way to go,

One part Platinum Mixable Ink dilution liquid to nil distilled water should work.

April 21, 2022

Epiphany, I tried your mixture - dishwashing detergent, glycerin, in tap water. Let it stand for two days - nothing untoward happened. The solution is clear, although I will say it took a long way for the soap (+?) bubbles to completely dissolve.

Maybe the tap water where you are is exceptionally hard? Ours is made by desalination, so it has a very specific composition.

April 21, 2022

I've tried a couple of recipes, as well as distilled water, and ended up going back to either Callifolio or De Atramentis dilution liquid, both of which just work without any messing around.

I did have a similar problem with floaty bits in a bottle of Anderillium wettener. I would probably choose the soap as the culprit.

April 22, 2022

I have had the best luck the the De Atramentis solution. I've also found that while glycerin is great, the dishwasher detergents vary a lot.

April 29, 2022

On 4/20/2022 at 5:35 AM, Epiphany Writes said:

TLDR; Water, glycerin, and dish soap mix as a DIY ink dilution liquid caused a strange reaction. Wondering what might have caused the reaction and if any successful recipes for dilution liquids exist.

Tap water has a typical regional composition. What you observed could had been a mineral precipitation. More likely it was simple microbiology: glycerin is a delicious food for many microbes which were present in your water. Nothing to be scared of, but if you feed them ...

Btw. 0.5 mL detergent per 100 mL water seems to be a factor 10-100 too much.