Finally! A perfume that smells better the more you sweat. Researchers from the Queens University Ionic Liquid Laboratories Research Centre (QUILL) in Belfast have announced a new sweat-activated perfume methodology.
Typically, perfumes used in conjunction with high sweat production do little to mask the scent of a person’s sweat and they most certainly do nothing to improve upon it. However, the QUILL researcher’s new perfume delivery system works by releasing more of its aroma when it comes into contact with moisture, i.e. sweat, meaning a person will smell nicer as their sweat levels increase.
The researchers at QUILL, led by the teams project leader, Dr. Nimal Gunaratne, along with Professor Ken Seddon and Dr Peter Nockemann, created the perfume system by tagging a new fragrance onto an ionic liquid, which is salt in the form of liquid that also has no smell. The teams “perfumed” ionic liquid then releases it’s specific aroma when it comes in direct contact with water. This allows the specialized perfume scent to be released onto a person’s skin.
Additionally, the new perfume system is also equipped to remove bad odors that come from a person’s sweat. When a person sweats the bad odor is mainly caused by thiols that are released during perspiration. Thiols, also called mercaptans, are in a class of organic chemical compounds similar to alcohols and phenols, but thiols contain a sulfur atom in place of the oxygen atom. How the new perfume systems works to combat this is by the way thiols are attracted to ionic liquids. The thiols attach themselves to the ionic liquid and this causes them to lose their potency.
Dr. Nimal Gunaratne stated, “This is an exciting breakthrough that uses newly discovered ionic liquid systems to release material in a controlled manner. Not only does it have great commercial potential, and could be used in perfumes and cosmetic creams, but it could also be used in others area of science, such as the slow release of certain substances of interest.”
The research teams innovative work could lead to new product development in the personal care market around the world.
To read more about this fascinating discovery, visit the QUILL website.
View the complete research published in The Royal Society of Chemistry here.
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