Phosphors

[ArchMageDiab]

Ok I am going to begin this post as I do every one; I do not know that much about science or chemistry although I am very interesting i dont have much knowledge.

 

So what i want to make is a liquid that glows in the dark or at least looks sweet as hell under a black light. I've seen powders that dissolve into paint and stuff to make it glow in the dark but the only problem with those is that the specific way we thought of having glow in the dark liquids is having a food coloring we could add to drinks to make them glow. So now the questio is are there any phosphors that are non-toxic and if not are there any food colorings that would react to a blacklight (dont think normal food coloring would would it?)

 

Secondly I think it would be fun to make stuff glow different colors for fun's sake so what would i do if i wanted to make some glowy stuff out of materials I could find in a High School Chem Lab?

[aj47]

You might want to check out 'luminol', if your high school doesn't have any you can easily buy some off the internet.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminol

[zyncod]

Well, obviously you've not been to college yet. Otherwise you'd have seen the staple of hi-liter fluid mixed with water in a frosted Absolut bottle. Not non-toxic though. You're not going to find a fluorophore which is good to drink. I'd stick with hi-liters - there are better substances, but they're either very toxic (eg, EtBr) or expensive as hell (eg, phycoerythrin).

[olmpiad]

Urine is brilliantly fluorescent (i found this out when I used the restroom at a party, scared the heck out of me!). For a more practical approach, take the felt cartrige out of a highlighter, and stir it in water until it has changed the color of the highlighter. You could also squeeze the felt tube, and let the ink drip into the water below.

[John Cuthber]

Tonic water fluoresces because of the quinine it contains.

IIRC carotene is fluorescent too.

[woelen]

Certain lanthanide oxides also are. These are not really toxic and also quite affordable, but I do not think you should put them in your food.