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.

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.

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