Chemistry graduate to research green alternatives

A Victoria University of Wellington chemistry graduate has joined forces with her former PhD supervisor to create safer and more stable natural hair dye, and help preserve handmade paper from China.

Dr Ying Tang, who graduated with a PhD in Chemistry in 2011 and is now an Associate Professor at the Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU) in China, will use sunlight to compare naturally made hair dyes and paper to their chemical-based alternatives.

In collaboration with Dr Gerald Smith from Victorias School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Dr Jolon Dyer from AgResearch, the research team will carry out two projects simultaneously-the first assessing damage caused by frequent chemical hair dyeing and finding a suitable natural option.

Dr Tang says there is a large market for hair dye, especially in China, but there are some health concerns.

"When Asian peoples hair turns grey, there is a cultural desire to slow and reverse this sign of ageing. This creates a huge demand for black or dark brown hair dye. Frequent dyeing causes many problems and toxicity concerns, so were trying to find a safe and stable dye that can be used instead of chemical synthetic dyes."

Using dyed human hair, the study will extract colourants from various plants and expose them to ultraviolet radiation. Researchers will then use spectroscopic techniques to determine their rate of fading.

"One interesting extract we will examine is walnut," says Dr Tang. "China is the biggest producer of walnuts in the world and disposing of huge amounts of the fruit skins can cause problems, so were trying to make new use of that waste."

The second project will focus on Xuan paper, an ancient Chinese paper handmade from natural ingredients. The papermaking craft takes over two years to complete, through a process with more than 100 steps, and has been declared a cultural heritage by UNESCO.

By comparing the photostability of handmade paper to machine-made paper, the research will determine the rate of deterioration and the chemical factors that contribute to the decline.

"We want to find a way to strengthen the use of Xuan paper because it is very useful to museum conservators and modern calligraphers and painters. There is a lot to learn about how the paper is made and why it is so resilient," says Dr Tang.

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Chemistry graduate to research green alternatives