Polyester
Toner is mostly powdered plastic. That means it can hold a static charge— and like socks in a dryer, it’ll cling to anything with an opposite charge. Laser printers use that cling to move the toner around: first onto an imaging drum and then onto the paper. Hot fuser rolls then smoosh the stuff into the paper fibers.
Wax
Early printers used radiant heat to melt the toner; unfortunately, the boss’s memos sometimes caught on fire. Fuser rolls fixed that, but toner tended to stick to them. The solution? Add wax to the mix for lubrication.
Carbon Black
To make the clear polyester look black, manufacturers commonly use this grimy stuff. It’s a jumble of pure carbon particles beneath floating clouds of shared electrons. Because these electrons have lots of room to move, they absorb light energy at all visible wave lengths. The result: No light reflects back to your retina, an your brain calls "black".
Fumed Silica
Microscopic glass beads provide an almost liquid powder flow. Fun project: Make your own by vaporizing sand in a 3,000-degree-Celsius electric arc.
Yellow 180
Along with black, color printers have yellow, magenta, and cyan cartridges. They can combine to make any other hue. All organic pigments have alternating single and double bonds that cause their electrons to absorb specific wavelengths of light. This one traps violet light while yellow passes through, bouncing off the page and into your eyeballs.
Red 122
Compounds of quinacrid-one produce intense reddish hues. In Red 122 (2,9-dimethyl-quinacridone), the flat molecules stack up like dinner plates in a crystal structure that shifts the reflected color to magenta.
Blue 15:3
Copper phtha-locyanine produces cyan, midway between green and blue.This pigment could someday power quantum computers because its electrons can exist in a state of superposition.
Charge Control Agents
The powder picks up static as it leaves the cartridge, and bits of iron, chromium, or zinc help boost the charge. Handle cartridges with care: Friction amps up static electricity, so sucking up spills with a regularvacuum cleaner can cause a colorful explosion.