http://www.superpants.net/gunge.

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Over the time that the gunge page has been on the website, It has become by far the most visited page, and I have had a number of enquiries from people wanting more information. I have therefore decided to update this page, expand it and re-order it, giving more technical information, and some specific recipes.

Definitions
The terminology for Gunge and Slime tends to vary somewhat around the world, and between dictionaries, however in general usage Slime and Gunge are virtually synonymous- typical UK definitions being; Slime; n Unpleasant thick slippery substance (1) Gunge; n informal Sticky unpleasant substance (1) In my opinion, these are not really sufficient definitions to distinguish between the various types of mess that can be made. To come up with a suitable definition, I believe that three properties that a fluid may have need to be considered. These are; Viscosity; The resitance of a fluid to shear forces, and hence to flow (2) Tack(iness); Ability of a material to bond with another when contact is brief and pressure is light (2) Stringiness; Like string, Fibrous (1) If you base the definition of gunge on that typically used in British television shows, which I believe is how the UK public perceive a gunge to be, then a suitable general definition would be; Gunge; A fluid which is viscous and tacky Basing the definition of slime on the familiar children's toys, I believe a suitable definition is; Slime; A fluid which is viscous and stringy, especially one that also displays tackiness I will therefore use these definitions for the rest of this site. The etymology does differ to that used in the USA.

Making Gunge and Slime

Recipes for various types of gunge and slime can be found on the seperate pages on this site. For mixing small quantities a small hand mixer works pretty effectively. For larger quanties a drill mounted mixer works effectively.

Mixing Items Gunge Technology

Virtually all the gunges used in film and television, are based on an industrial thickening agent (gum), either a food or cosmetic ingredient, although this is not always the case (e.g. Custard for Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow). Technically they are usually Polysaccharides, a polymer carbohydrate. In particular many are derivatives of cellulose, of which there a huge range of products available. Virtually any commercial thickening agent could be used, but there are a number of reasons why a restricted number tend to be selected;

Safety
This should obviously be of prime importance- this means that the thickeners should be products intended for food or cosmetic use. Industrial thickeners for paints, oil well drilling etc are therefore not likely to be appropriate.

Availability
In most cases the industrial thickeners are not available directly to the

public. They are bulk packaged (typically in 25kg/50lb sacks) and sold only via trade suppliers. This means that the products that are available are those where a supplier is prepared to split a sack to sell a small quantityhence the dominance of natrosol in the UK and Methyl Cellulose in the US.

Temperature
Many of the easily available food thickeners (such as cornflour/ custard powder, starch, gelatine etc) either need to be boiled or at least require boiling water. Whilst this is practical for a few litres at home, it becomes difficult to make up large batches unless you have access to commercial kitchen facilities. Some of the industrial thickeners are also formulated to be dry-mixed with food ingredients and then thicken when water is added and cooked. This means these types of thickeners are less desirable for gunge use.

Cost
Can vary considerably, but can be difficult to compare as different concentrations will be needed to make a mix of the same viscosity (thickness). It is therefore best to compare the cost per litre of the finished gunge.

Mixing
In my opinion, the ease of mixing is probably the most important factor to consider. The natrosol mixes very easily, but in my experience some other thickeners (such as Guar gum) don't. For small quantities a wooden spoon or food mixer works quite effectively. For larger batches a paint/ plaster mixer in a drill works very effectively. To disperse the powder into the water, I tend to measure the required amount into a jug, and sprinkle into the water as it is being stirred. If the thickener doesn't flow easily as a powder, I would recommend passing through a sieve first as if the powder clumps together , it won't disperse easily in the water and you will end up with lump (3). When mixing a large batch up, I would generally recommend splitting it into smaller batches. This makes the physical handling of the gunge easier, and reduces the risk of losing the whole batch if something goes wrong. Typically for the events I have run where 3-400 litres have been needed, we have split it into 50l batches. In some of these cases we have mixed the gunge off site from where it is going to be used and transported in 50l Screw-top plastic kegs (ex mango chutney containers). Kegs any larger than this aren't really practical for manual handling without special equipment (3).

Although not directly broken down by bacterial action, the cellulose based thickeners can be degraded by enzyme action, resulting in it becoming watery (4). I find that this tends to happen with the Natrosol gunge within a few days of being used.

Thickeners

A range of thickeners that can be used for gunge manufacture

As already mentioned, there are a wide range of possible thickeners. In most cases they are polysaccharides of some form. This means they are chemically similar to sugar and starches, and are built up from the same basic chemical molecules- a simple carbohydrate. These are linked together to form a long chain, making a polymer.

Branching of Polymers
Differences between various grades of the same material are usually down to different lengths of polymer chain, characterised by the molecular weight (MW) you may see on a manufacturer's datasheet, and by any branching of the chain. As a rough and ready approximation, the longer and/or more branchedthe chain is, when mixed with water, the more viscous will be the

resultant gunge. Conversely, the powder will generally become more difficult to disperse, the higher the molecular weight. I will cover the basic of information regarding each material, as this page is only a brief introduction to the subject. I will also cover only those substances known to be used to produce gunge or slimes, or where I have experience using them. There is plenty of more detailed information available for those with a more scientific interest in the subject out there (in particular see ref 4).

Guar gum gunge in use (Coloured with food dye)

Guar Gum (E412) Guar is a naturally occurring gum, extracted from the Guar (or cluster) Bean, most of the world's supply coming from India. It is relatively cheap, and readily available from health food stores. The first few events I created Gunge for, I used Guar Gum which was obtained as samples from a commercial food ingredient supplier. This worked quite effectively when made up, but proved to be very hard work to mix- the gum has a tendency to clump, which makes mixing it to smooth consistency very difficult. The photo at the head of the page is of an event at the University of Surrey Student's union using this type. I no longer tend to use it except in the stringy slime recipes listed below.

Xanthan Gum (E415) Xanthan is the first of the commercially synthesised thickeners, being manufactured by the fermentation by the bacteria Xanthomanas campestris of Glucose or Sucrose, followed by collection, cleaning and milling. It is available under the trade names Keltrol and Kelzan. In recent years it has started to be used as gluten substitute, and therefore has started to become more easily available from health food shops, larger supermarkets in the UK and homemade soap suppliers (5). If my memory serves me correctly, this was the material used for the Run the Risk TV show Cellulose Based Thickeners All of these are based on cellulose extracted from vegetable matter and then chemically treated with a range of processes to alter the properties (viscosity, dispersion etc) to suit particular needs

Hydroxyethylcellulose (Natrosol) gunge in use, coloured with powder paint

Hydroxyethylcellulose Possibly the most common cellulose based thickener used for gunge, it is known by the trade name Natrosol used by the BBC for Noels House Party

amongst other programmes (6), and widely used for charity events and home gunging. Methylcellulose (E641) A very common cellulosic thickener, it has a wide range of commercial uses including being the main constituent of many wallpaper pastes (7). Known by the trade name Methocel (manufactured by Dow), its most well known use was used in the Ghostbusters films(8,33) and the bulk of the slime used in alien resurrection(10,11). Others cellulosics Other possible cellulose based materials that could also be used if available include; Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (E464)- often known as Hypromellose, Carboxy methyl cellulose (E466) and Sodium carboxy methyl cellulose (E467) Super Absorbant Polymer Sodium Polyacrylate/ Potassium Polyacrylate/ Polyacrylamide There are a number of chemically similar materials, generically known as Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP), of which Sodium Polyacrylate is the most common type, most commonly known as the main absorbent in disposable nappies and as a soil conditioner. A good background on the material can be found at ref (12). Like most of the industrial thickeners, their properties are dependent on the molecular weight and branching, but also by the physical form the powder is in (granules/ powder etc), giving rise to a range of possibilities for different textures. Commercially it is available as Gellibaff(13)(and other bath gels). It has some major advantages in that it is easy to mix, and the viscosity of the fluid can be massively affected by sodium chloride (table salt), so disposal is easy as the viscosity can be dropped back to close to that of water (14). It doesn't have good tackiness, however, and so in my opinion doesn't make a particularly good gunge (3). Polyacrylamide is chemically similar to Sodium Polyacrylate, but is not affected by the addition of table salt (14). Commercially it is available as 'Yuck'(15).

Polyox Slime (Coloured with cosmetic pigment) Polyethylene Oxide Polyethelyne Oxide (PEO) (or Polyoxyethelyne (POE)) is another high molecular weight polymer, the common trade name being Polyox (16). Typically it will have a molecular weight above about 100,000. Below this it will tend to be known as Polyethelyne Glycol (PEG), the common trade

name here being Carbowax (17). Both PEG and PEO are widely used in cosmetics as well as such items as vetinary lubricants (18). Polyox is pretty difficult to mix as a raw material (3). Commercial products therefore mix other materials such as sugar to make dispersion easier (18). Psyllium/ Ispaghula Husk Another naturally occurring thickener- this is made from the ground up husk of the Plantago Ovata seed. When mixed up it tends to form a stringy slime. It is sold in health food stores as a milled form as a form of dietary fibre supplement, but in this form is not particularly soluble as it clumps on mixing with water. For this reason there are a wide range of purified and prepared formulations on the market, sold as bulk forming laxatives. The formulations vary, but all have the common form of coating the powdered husk with another substance to avoid the clumping (19). The two most well known brands are Fybogel in the UK and Metamucil in the US. Best results seem to be obtained by either boiling a mixture of the husk powder and water or heating in the microwave for a few minutes. Typically the concentration needs to be approx 2% by weight, but as this is a natural product, there is significant variation between supplier and batch (3). Wallpaper Paste In the UK it is difficult to obtain wallpaper paste that hasn't had a fungicidal additive mixed in with it. For this reason I wouldn't consider using it as a gunge. Chemically it is often a methylcellulose grade or a Dextrin- a modified starch (4,7). Theatrical Slosh A perennial favourite in pantomimes in the UK is the slapstick sceneepitomised by the laundry scene in Aladdin. The particular mess in this and in clowning shows is generally known as slosh. There are many variations on the recipes for slosh, but the key features are that it is soap based, and usually a foam (26). The common base recipe is to grate a shaving stick into a bucket, sometimes quoted to be one manufactured by Erasmic (35,26,36), followed by whipping up with hot/ boiling water. If manufacturing a bucket or more, a paint stirrer attachment for a drill works well (3). One stick with 1/2l of water and makes approx 1 Bucket of slosh. Other ingredients can be added including food colouring or poster paint to colour the slosh (best added to the water first). I have also seen cornflour,

glycerine and gelatine quoted as other useful additives, but haven't yet investigated these thoroughly. A further variation I have rarely seen is to dissolve soap flakes into boiling water with a small quantity of glycerine and food colour (3,37).

Jelly/ Jello/ Gelatine

In small quantities this is easily available and easy to make, however I avoid using it for a number of reasons- Primarily it is difficult to make in volume as it requires boiling water and refrigeration. Couple this with the fact it's viscosity is temperature dependent and doesn't store well when mixed makes it difficult to use. SAPs are commonly used to give a jelly effect for example for wrestling in. Denture Fixative Denture fixative has been sugeested as suitable to make a slime by those making home movies (34). Wernets/ poligrip is available and contains a cellulose thickener. It works but is an expensive way of getting the thickener (3).

Cornflour used for "walking on custard"

Cornflour The basis of custard, can form a highly thixotropic liquid when mixed with water- This is the basis of the walking on custard demonstrations. (e.g. the well known Brainiac episode). The proportion of Cornflour to water need to

be very high so this is not a cheap activity in large volumes (3).

Guar Gum Slime

(cross-linked with borax and coloured with poster paint)

Cross-linking Some of the thickeners have the ability to have their chains cross-linked to make the viscosity much higher, by the action other chemicals. Both PVA (poly vinyl alcohol) and Guar Gum are particularly good at cross linking with a common chemical, sodium tetraborate- more normally known as borax (4). The cross-linked guar gum is the material sold in toy stores as slime- but can be fairly easily made at home. There are good recipes for this at 'Chemistry in the Toy Store' (20), along with a good explanation of the chemistry.

Colouring and colourants

There are a number of options open for colouring the gunge, each with their own benefits. I would recommend using products known to be safe for skin contact. It is worth bearing in mind that to produce an intensely coloured gunge, quite a lot of the dye will be needed- It is therefore inherent risk that it will stain. To reduce the risk of damage to clothes, avoid white or light colours and wash them as soon as possible after the event, preferably before it dries on (3). Whilst most users will tend to colour their gunge with powder paints, liquid tempera (poster paints) or food colourings there are a wide range of other options available. Commercially, colourants are split in to two main classes; dyes and pigments, defined as follows; Pigment: A pigment is a finely divided solid colouring material, which is essentially insoluble in it's application medium (21) Dye: Soluble colourant- may be soluble in water or other liquids The ideal colourant for our uses would be readily available in a wide range of colours, non-staining, non toxic, vivid and available as both opaque and clear versions, as well as being low cost. Unfortunately the perfect solution does not seem to exist, so we are forced to compromise on some factors, in particular with the commonly used colourants the inherent risk is that it will stain. To reduce the risk of damage to clothes, avoid white or light colours and wash them as soon as possible after the event, preferably before it dries on.

A wide range of possible Colourants

Colourants mixed at usable concentrations Food colouring Widely available, safe and cheap. In my experience can stain quite badly as it is a dye, and therefore designed to be absorbed onto food. It is clear so means that mixed gunge will not be very visible when not in bulk (3). Powder Paints This is the colourant used in some of the commercial suppliers pre-mixed powders (22). It is a pigment, so is generally less staining than food colouring and is opaque (at least if mixed in sufficient concentrations). It seems to be getting superseded for home kids painting (in the UK at least) by the premixed paints, and is so becoming slightly more difficult to obtain on the high street than it once was. The composition is based on a pigment, an opacifier (usually titanium dioxide), some binders (can be dextrose based) and an extender, usually calcium-carbonate (chalk) (21). In my opinion the presence of the extenders reduce the vividness of the colour, and for gunge, the binders arent necessary. If someone could formulate a powder with these changes, wed have the perfect colourant! I believe it is the type of colouring used in at least some of the commercially available suppliers products (22). Liquid Tempera (Poster Paint) Widely available, safe and opaque. These are a good all round choice, particularly as the range of colours is wide and includes fluorescent neon.

The colours do seem to be more vivid than the powder paints. The main disadvantage is that some colours will stain, and a reasonable quantity is needed to get a suitably opaque mix. I have also been unable to find much useful information on the formulation, particularly on binders or other chemicals used. Helizarin Helizarin is a trade name of BASF, but is of note as it is the range of dyes quoted as being used by the BBC for their gunge (6). It is not easily available, although there is one trade source of small quantities in the UK. It produces a very vivid colour, and is in my opinion the best looking colour available, but it is not sold as safe for skin contact (23), as well as being staining. I would not therefore recommend it for home use. Bath Tints These are available as tablets for colouring bath water, and are sold under a number of names, typically 'Fizzy bath tints'. They provide a way of colouring that is not likely to stain, but only have a minimum of colouring power (3). Cosmetic Dyes & Pigments There are a wide range of dyes and pigments available that are used in cosmetics, and hence are safe to use. After spending some time investigating and experimenting with these I have come to the conclusion that for normal use they do not offer any great advantage over the other options, and are not as easy to obtain. They main benefit I can envisage with these are the availability of specialist additives like pearlising agents and fine glitters that could add sparkle to a gunge.

Colouring Intensity
Even a small amount of colourant will give an intense and opaque effect when the gunge is in bulk, however when the gunge is in a thin film, as will occur when it is being used, significantly more colourant will be needed if you want the object/ person underneath to be obscured. Dependent on the application, I will typically use between 1 and 2% by weight of powder paint to produce a suitably opaque and intense colour. I have gone as far as 5% when I have had a need to get a particularly strong effect in photographs. If you need opacity, but not a vibrant colour then a mix of white powder paint to provide the opacity and another colourant can give a desirable, but more pastel effect. These figures should be taken as a guide only as there will be variation between different manufacturers paints and between colours in their range. If a particular effect is needed then Id recommend experimenting first. It is

also worth noting that at the higher concentrations, some of the filler in the paint will slowly drop out of suspension. It is therefore a good idea to give the gunge a good stir before use. The following image gives some comparison of the opacity and covering power of different concentrations, using Natrosol and NES Arnold blue powder paint.

Paint Concentrations Blue powder paint mixed with water and Natrosol at 1%

Further Information
There are a number of things picked up whilst researching this page that dont neatly fall under any other category, so Ill include them here. Rheology There is a branch of science devoted to researching and defining how materials flow, known as Rheology. It is an area of research that has wide ranging effects that might not be immediately obvious. Some example areas are; flow of plastics in moulding & resins in manufacturing composites, manufacture of paints, drilling mud for oil well sinking, food processing and manufacture of the next extreme hold hair gel. The rheology of the materials is of interest to us- probably most importantly, the viscosity of the material. This is described at the start of this article. The other key properties that a fluid may have that are interest are defined as; Newtonian Viscosity; Newton's law of viscosity states that the shear stress is directly proportional to the shear rate (7). i.e. viscosity is independent of the forces applied to the fluid, although temperature may have an effect. This area will be expanded soon- please check back! Movie Slime/ Monster Slime Apart from the bulk quantities of slime that is used in movies usually being manufactured from methyl cellulose (8,11) there are a number of other substances used. The most obvious being the use of KY Jelly in the alien films (11). The one however of most interest is Ultra Slime. Ultra Slime was manufactured by a company called Ultra Materials, however it appears they are no longer trading and so the mantle of providing stringy slime appears to have fallen to a couple of other companies. The companies that produce this understandably dont publish the formulations, however from studying of a material safety data sheet (29), and by experimentation (3), I would postulate that the key ingredient is polyox which is blended with methylcellulose. Similarly the other commercially available stringy slime powder, Sticky Yuck I would postulate is a blend of Polyox and sodium polyacrylamide (3,14,15).

Nickleodeon Green Slime

One of the most well known users of slime is the children's television channel Nickeleodeon. The slime they use is manufactured by a company

called Blair Adhesives in the US (30,31,32,33).There is no indication of what the slime is based on, although the colouring is known to be food colouring (32)

Safety
Whilst I have been careful to only list materials on this page that are not known to have any significant health risks associated with them, they cannot all be classed as completely hazard free. The largest single issue is the slipperiness of the mix- it can be very easy to slip over on. It is therefore essential to consider this when planning any activities involving gunge, including clean up and washing off as the most significant effects will be found on a smooth surface such as a bath! Most of the materials are supplied as relatively fine powders, and as such create nuisance dust. It is therefore worth wearing a dust mask when handling. Likewise if this dust gets into eyes it can cause irritation. Most of the materials are sold as safe for skin contact (e.g. cosmetics) and to date I have not had any problems with this. I would however be slightly wary of allowing prolonged skin contact with the colourants as it may stain! All of these main materials (with one exception- see below) are not hazardous when eaten, however many are used as laxative additives, so it would probably be unwise to consume large quantities (4)! Borax (Sodium Tetraborate) is the main exception to the above- It is not safe for consumption, and should therefore be handled and used carefully so as to avoid ingestion, although in the quantities actually present in slime it should not cause any concern. (27) In addition to the specific information above, general safe chemical handling practice will further reduce the risk of any issues, in particular; Store materials in sealed, well marked, containers in an area out of reach of children and pets Wash hands before and after handling these materials Dispose of excess/ used materials/ empty packaging responsibly Wear dust mask when handling powders Clean up any spills quickly- Avoid using water to stop the area becoming slippery Do not use utensils/ containers/ cleaning cloths that will be later used for food

References

(1) English Dictionary, Home Edition, Collins, ISBN 978-0-00-784932-1 (2) Materials Science and Technology Dictionary, Prof P.M.B. Walker, Chambers, ISBN 0-550-13249-x (3) Personal experimentation (4) Industrial Gums- Polysaccharides and Their Derivatives, Second Edition, Roy Whistle, Academic Press 1973, ISBN 012746252 (5) http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/ (6) BBC red nose day website 1999 (7) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/160522/dextrin (8) Quest- Marshall Cavendish Partwork (10) Rosie O'donnell show interview with Sigourney Weaver, Nov 26th, 1997 (11) Alien The Special Effects, Don Shay & Bill Norton, Cinefex ISBN 185286-695-0 (12) http://www.m2polymer.com/html/chemistry_sap.html (13) Gellibaff MSDS- http://www.gellibaff.com/safety/files/msdsheet-4.pdf (14) Superabsorbent Polymers Science and Technology, F.L.Buchholz & N.A.Peppa, ACS Symposium Series 573, ISBN 0-8412-3039-0 (15) Buckets of Yuck MSDS- http://www.buckets-ofun.com/gamesheets/MSDS.pdf (16) Dow Polyox Water-Soluble Resins Datasheet- 326-00001-0302 AMS (17) Dow Carbowax and Carbowax Sentry Datasheet- 118-1260-0306 AMS (18) J-Lube MSDS- http://www.jorvet.com/msds/j_lube.pdf (19) Patents; US20050031714, US4321263, US5126150 (20) http://www.chymist.com/toy_store.html (21) Colour Chemistry, R.M. Christie, RSC Paperbacks, 2001, ISBN 085404-573-2 (22) Youtube video for thegungeshop.comhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0lPyRKLqM (23) Concentrated Liquid Pigment MSDS- Flint Hire and Supply (24) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/160522/dextrin (25) Dow Methocel Cellulose ethers technical handbook, 192-01062697GW (26) http://amdram.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=5342&hl=slosh (27) http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/images/MSDS/powders%20&%20granule s/MSDS%20Borax.pdf (28) http://www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/technical/article_page/Repeat_perform ance/47074 (29) Super Goop MSDS, Roger George Rentals (30) http://www.nick.com/shows/kids-choice-awards/pictures/kca-2010making-of-flipbook.html

(31) http://www.blairadhesives.com/Special_Effects.html (32) http://blog.zap2it.com/tvfashion/2010/03/to-a-funeral-we-wear.html (33) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/arts/television/29nick.html (34) http://www.theeffectslab.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1786 (35) http://www.erasmic.co.uk/shave-brush.html (36) Conversations with professional stage manager (37) Blue Peter episode late 1980s- from memory Supplier Details The Basic Chemical Company (UK) Ltd Hillbottom Road Sands Industrial Estate High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP12 4HJ 01494 450701 http://www.basicchemicals.co.uk/ The Soap Kitchen (warehouse), Units 2 D&E Hatchmoor Industrial Estate, Hatchmoor Road, Torrington, Devon EX38 7HP. UK. 01805 622944. http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/ (c) Superpants October 2010, Jan 2011, Sept 2011 A significant amount of effort has gone into researching this page. Please do not plagiarise this work without contacting me for permission first- I will usually say yes! This page will be updated periodically as and when new I find new, relevant information. Home Gunge Index